If you take the inland road, from Naxos to Filoti, and then continue up the cliff side, destination Apiranthos, then Komiaki, you soon will see these wagons hanging above the road.
They belong to another era, when emery was dug out of the mountain and was sent down to Lionas and Moutsouna ports to be loaded to ships going allover to Europe and America. Emery was used to make iron into steel, but also to make the emerypaper, until there was a cheaper synthetic substitute found.
Notice the wagon hanging on the road, seen just at the front of the BMW front wheel.
Nowadays, the emery mines are not operating, and they've stopped some 50 years now. At a sudden moment someone just turned off the power, and even loaded wagons stopped on their way down to the sea. The mines are at a height of about 800 m above sea level, but what made it more difficult to move the emery down to the ports, was that the land was so wildly difficult to get trespassed. So they made this little "elevator" system, to get the emery all the 10-12 km in a straight line, down to the ports and the ships.
Memory lane part 2: Komiaki. The place where my dad grew up.
We were amazed at how much the village of Komiaki has remained untouched from "modern civilization". It may be one of the scarce few villages in the whole Aegean sea islands that does not have bars, nightclubs and not even a single room to rent!
The village's protecting saint, Panagia Theoskepasti. She is celebrated on September 8, with a great dance and bbq festival sort, with local music. All surrounding villages' people arrive here on this day to celebrate.
The small streets are so quiet and clean. Remember that Komiaki is located at a height of about 800m above sealevel, which makes it quite hard to reach. Also, the road to reach it, even though it was made of asphalt long time ago, still is one of the most challenging rides, nesting at the edge of cliffs with "no-ending-bottoms". Maybe this explains its originality and absense of all "modern facilities" so far. May it remain this way forever!
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