Daniel P. Kidder

The Caves of the earth : Their natural history, features, and incidents


Antiparos

Antiparos, in the Greek Archipelago, near to Paros, as the name signifies, is one of the Cyclades, a group to the westward of that which contains the isle of the Apocalypse, the scene of John's banishment. The celebrated Parian Chronicle, containing a chronological account of the principal events in Greek history from the earliest times to two centuries and a half before Christ, was found in Paros, on a block of marble, of which the whole island is composed. Antiparos, separated from it by a narrow, dangerous channel, is entirely of the same material, of small dimensions, and thinly inhabited, but often resorted to by travelers, on account of its great cavern, popularly called a grotto. The island, "despicable as it appears," says Tournefort, "has in it one of the greatest varieties that perhaps is in nature, and which proves one of the important truths of philosophy, to wit, the vegetation of stones" — his theory respecting the origin of stalactites. A rough cavern is the first object observed, about thirty paces broad, vaulted in a kind of arch, and inclosed with a court made by the shepherds. On some natural pillars about the entrance there are the remains of an ancient inscription, containing some proper names — Antipater among the rest, which local tradition supposes to be the names of the conspirators against Alexander the Great, who, after having failed in their design, are said to have here taken refuge.

Having entered the cavern, the passage proceeds without difficulty for about twenty yards, at the end of which is a precipice, descended by means of ropes fastened to the projecting masses of rock. Another passage succeeds, ending in a descent, not so precipitous as the first. A third passage is then traversed, the walls of which, and the roof, are of glittering white and red marble, as smooth as if wrought by art ; and after crossing a third precipice, a long sloping passage, the sides presenting snake-like petrifactions, leads to the fourth and last descent into the real Grotto of Antiparos. This is called the " Great Hall," a spacious apartment one hundred and twenty yards long, one hundred and thirteen wide, and sixty feet high. The sides and roof are covered with immense incrustations of calcareous matter, beautifully white. Stalactites, ten or twelve feet long, depend from the ceiling, as thick as a man's waist, with a thousand festoons and leaves of the same substance occupying the intervening spaces. The floor is rough and uneven, owing to the formations of stalagmite upon it, some of which resemble broken columns, or the stumps of trees. One remarkably fine mass, termed the "Altar," is twenty feet in diameter, and twenty-four feet high. The memory of this cavern, known to the ancient Greeks, seems to have been forgotten till the seventeenth century, when it was renewed by the marquis de Nointel, the ambassador of Louis XIY. to the Porte. He passed the three Christmas holydays in it, in 1673, on his journey to Constantinople, accompanied by a train of domestics, merchants, corsairs, and natives, who were curious to explore it. The place was illuminated by a hundred large wax torches, and four hundred lamps. The Capuchin chaplains of the ambassador celebrated high mass at midnight, the large block of stalagmite serving for the altar, after which it has been named, upon which an inscription, recording the ceremony, was carved by his order. It is not known whether the whole of the site has yet been explored.