Marmara Beach (Armathia)

On an uninhabited islet opposite Fry, the sand turns golden and pink, the waters turquoise, and the seabed shines with natural gypsum — an image that many compare to the most exotic beaches in the Mediterranean.

Northwest of Kasos lies uninhabited Armathia, the largest island in a small group of islets known as Kasonisia. It is home to Marmara Beach, where the fine, golden sand and deep blue waters take on an almost exaggerated hue thanks to the white plaster that covers parts of the seabed — a combination that evokes both a tropical landscape and a Cycladic beach.

This islet, now uninhabited, was not always like this: its subsoil, rich in excellent quality gypsum, once supported a small but stable settlement, with a population that reached 100 inhabitants in its heyday, while as late as 1951 there were eight permanent residents recorded there. This history gives the current, undisturbed landscape an apocryphal social dimension — a place that once had life and today is offered exclusively to nature and to visitors who come to admire its beach.