Island of Pythagoras, sweet Muscat wine, and ancient tunnels cut through solid rock
Samos lies just a kilometre off the Turkish coast at its closest point, close enough to make out the ruins of Ephesus from its eastern shores. It was one of the wealthiest and most sophisticated islands of ancient Greece — the birthplace of Pythagoras and Epicurus, the home of the engineer Eupalinos who built the first known tunnel measured from both ends simultaneously, and a centre of Hera worship whose Heraion sanctuary once rivalled Delphi. Today it produces an excellent Muscat wine and offers hiking through chestnut forests and sea swimming of startling clarity.
Samos reached its peak under the tyrant Polycrates in the 6th century BCE, when it was one of the most powerful naval states in the Aegean. The three great engineering works of Polycrates — mentioned by Herodotus as the greatest feats of any Greek city — were the Tunnel of Eupalinos (a 1,036-metre water tunnel dug from both ends, meeting in the middle with precision), the harbour mole, and the Temple of Hera (the Heraion, largest temple in the Greek world at the time). The Eupalinos tunnel, rediscovered in 1882, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and a genuine wonder of ancient engineering.