Why Visit
It lies between the larger island of Naxos (north) and Amorgos (south) and just under the island of Koufonissi, from which the island is best visited. From that island you can sometimes take a caique (traditional wooden boat) to Keros, where there are remains of an ancient Neolithic settlement.
Keros is a small but impressive island that rises up high from the sea with its highest point the 432 meter high mountain Keros. This is in contrast to the other, usually quite flat islands in the group of small cyclades, which are not nearly as dramatic. Keros is virtually uninhabited, except for a few monks. The island is primarily used to graze goats.
Keros was a major center in the early Cycladic culture (3000 - 2000 BC). On the west side of the island about 100 Cycladic figurines have been excavated, including the famous harpist and flutist, that are now in the Archaeological Museum of Athens. Also pottery shards were found that are more than 4000 years old. It is suspected that Keros was a place of pilgrimage especially because all figures that were found almost all had been deliberately broken and had been thrown together into a pit. On the north side of the island are the remains of a medieval city.
