The ancient quarries
Karystia has been associated since ancient times with the extraction of marble known as karystia and styria stone. This is a type of marble called sipolino with gray-green color. Intensive marble mining seems to have taken place in Roman times, during the time of Julius Caesar and Augustus. They mainly built monolithic columns that decorated public buildings and even slabs for lining walls and floors. One can admire the Karystian columns in the Library of Andrianos in Monastiraki, Athens.
The ancient quarries are scattered in the area of Styra, Marmari and Karystos. In most you can see piles of marble remains, vertically cut rocks and broken columns. The impressive columns of the Myloi are kept intact as well as a carved round monolith known as Tsoukali.
At present, from 1980 onwards, intensive stone mining is carried out in the area of Agios Dimitrios and Plakota. Quarrying is a source of wealth for the area, but has led to environmental degradation because the stone mining does not follow strict environmental conditions.
