The Nature of Sifnos
 In
the prehistoric times, Sifnos
was uninhabited, as well as the rest of the Cyclades islands, with
rich flora and fauna. This situation begun to change during the
Neolithic period, when the islands have been inhabited and people
began burning the forests in order to create fields and grasslands.
That’s how the Cycladic landscape has been formed, as we know it
today. Its main characteristic are
 the
bushy
vegetation, in the spaces that are cultivated as grassland, and the
land terraces, in places where grain is cultivated, vineyards or a
few olive trees. There have been times when Sifnos and the
neighboring islands could feed an importantly large population of
residents when the islands were cultivated systematically. However,
today most of the land terraces remain waste, as the residents are
mainly into tourism.
The ground of Sifnos
offers many crystallic and macrocrystallic marbles as well as other
rocks. Ferrum
 and
manganese ores appear today mainly at the locations Agios Sostis,
Agios Silivestros, Virini, Kapsalo etc. The ores in Sifnos were
known since the antiquity. They are mentioned in the work of
Pausanias, Herodotus, Stravonas and Plinios.
There is the tradition that Sifnos was once rich in ferrum, lead,
gold and silver and because the residents of Sifnos violated the
order of Apollo according to which they should send as tribute to
the Delphi one golden egg (they sent a gold-plated egg instead of a
golden one), the groundswell caused the mines to disappear. The
most popular mines in the antiquity were the mine of Agios Sostis
and the mine of Kapsalos or Schismades.
During his wandering around Sifnos the visitor comes upon
small forests of Phoenician junipers, oleanders and salt cedars and
in the sea bed there are colonies of the popular plant poseidonica
oceanica, which is protected by the European legislation.
 Sifnos
is a good passage for the migratory birds,
such as herons, water loving birds, orioles, bee-eaters, turtle
doves and many more water birds. Of course, there are birds that
come to Sifnos and stay for the summer such as woodchat shrikes,
swifts etc.
There are also predatory birds such as Eurasian hobbies,
Cory’s Shearwaters, Bonelli’s eagles, Peregrine falcons, Eleonora’s
falcons etc. For these species of animals and birds which are under
protection, the west Sifnos has been integrated into the network
Natura 2000
of the European Union. |
