Sarakiniko

One of the undisputed highlights among Milos’ range of beaches is undoubtedly Sarakiniko. Here volcanism has formed a unique landscape that is unrivalled. Over time, bizarre structures have grown from white ash deposits, taking on harmonious round shapes that look unreal, like a lunar landscape. The area is riven with deep clefts and is extensive enough so that from many viewpoints you can see nothing but the all-encompassing dazzling white cliffs contrasting with the blue of the sky. That looks amazingly impressive and also explains why Sarakiniko is one of the favourite photographic subjects on Milos.

View of Sarakiniko from the plane. The usual stony landscape covered with green-brown garrigue suddenly changes into bare white rock with almost no vegetation. Sarakiniko is easy to make out even from a great distance.

Embedded in the white rock is a tiny sandy beach which merely breaks up the harmonious overall picture. It’s totally superfluous since the water-eroded, porous rock is astonishingly smooth, so you can lie on it on a towel with no problems. Sarakiniko has no permanent facilities and the infrastructure is limited to a wide asphalt access road and a sufficiently large car park which can deal with the flood of visitors in high summer. In high season, a mobile “cantina” stands in the car park and this occasionally shows itself to be astonishingly flexible and it appears at some panigyri festival or other to feed visitors.

The summer flood of visitors to the lunar landscape has to be organised. Whereas many people used to leave their cars parked right down on the white rock, nowadays all traffic is halted at the car park located way above. People stream here by moped or car, taxi or bus but then, fortunately, they have to cover the rest of the way on foot.

Update 04/20