From Antikythera to the Square Kilometre Array:
Lessons from the Ancients
Workshop Location: Kerastari, Greece
The village of Kerastari is located almost precisely in the middle of the Peloponese (Southern part of mainland Greece). It is not marked in most maps. It is about 200 kms SW of Athens, near the provincial town of Tripolis), the main town (approx 30,000 people) in the ancient region of On a map the village is 4 km north of the main road connecting Tripolis and Megalopolis and the turnoff is at a distance of ~20km from Tripolis and ~10km from Megalopolis. It is near (about 5 kms) the freeway exit at Asea. On Google Earth the village is at coordinates of 22d14m15.5s East longitude and 37d25m12s North latitude. It is at an elevation of about 750 m above sea level. The sea is about 60 kms by road, almost in any direction. Travel time can vary from 0.5-2 hours, depending on the direction.
The population of the village has been greatly reduced due to the post-war migration to the bigger towns within Greece or to foreign countries like America, Canada and Australia. The current population is only around 50 people and many of the houses are empty and are used only as holiday homes.
The village is nestled at the base of a forested mountain (mainly oaks) and it is quite picturesque. In recent times, many of the village fields have not been cultivated and the whole area is rapidly becoming a forest. Despite a large fire in 2007 which destroyed much vegetation, the village is again very verdant.
There are a number of old churches and even the ruins of an old temple of Poseidon on the top of the nearby mountain. There is an easy path to walk there if people are interested. The workshop venue is the Kerastari Community Hall. It can accommodate functions for up to 80 people and workshop participation will be limited to this number. Pre-registration is strongly encouraged. Various maps of Greece can be found on many places on the Web. Of course, the most details are available on Google Earth (see Kerastari) or on Google maps (just type Kerastari in the search box). Below are some old-fashioned maps from various sources, which may be of intrest.
Zoomed maps of Greece - Kerastari from the old Mapblast! database. Map of Arcadia, courtesy of John Seiradakis.
Map of Tripolis or just the centre of town.
Some photos of the village and the workshop venue were taken in the period 2002-2007 and collections are posted below (in small and large formats). Some landscapes are in winter and the village will be much greener in early June.
Photos of the village (small) and large
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For more information email to: Tasso Tzioumis