Amazing Grecian blue waters, stunning islands, feta cheese, salad—or feta cheese on the salad, mules—these are just some of the great things people know about Greece. Experiencing this nation with a land area of 131,957 square kilometers (32.6 million acres) is infinitely better though. There is nothing better than just soaking up the Greek sun, walking on cobbled streets, and enjoying the sea breeze.
More than 10 million people are living in Greece. The number of people within the country’s territory at any given time is much more than that because of the millions of tourists visiting the country. It has wonderful beaches and islands, as it has the longest coastline in the Mediterranean Basin and the 11th longest in the world. The country has numerous islands, 227 of which are inhabited.
Eighty percent of Greece is mountainous, which explains why mules have become a popular means of transportation. The country’s highest peak is the famous Mount Olympus. Aside from the country’s wondrous natural beauty, it is also historically significant as the cradle of Western civilization. It is also the birthplace of the Olympic Games—both in ancient and modern times.
With so much natural beauty within this country, Greece created 10 national parks to preserve them as well as showcase them to locals and international tourists. The most famous of the parks is the Mount Olympus National Park, which was also the first park established in 1938. But the nation’s other parks are just as beautiful. Here are the top five unexplored national parks in Greece:
1. Ainos National Park
The park is centered around Mount Ainos (sometimes spelled Aenos), which is the highest peak in the Ionian Island. It stands 1,628 meters and is a mixture of dolomite from the Cretaceous period and limestone. The park is mostly carpeted with Greek fir, which is an evergreen coniferous tree species native to the Greek mountains. There is also a large population of black pine, which is popular in the Mediterranean region. The forests are also peppered with semi-wild ponies.
Scaling Mount Ainos means getting stunning vistas of the islands of Ithaca, Lefkada, and Zakynthos. There is a visitor walking route for Mt. Ainos, which is a favorite destination among park visitors. It is an easy walk to the summit, but not after driving along Mt. Ainos road. However, for more serious hikers, there are more strenuous routes to the summit. Tourists who reach the summit should not forget to sign the visitors book, which is attached to the concrete post found at the peak.
There are also several beautiful caves in the northern area of the park to provide guests with a different kind of attraction.
2. Oeta National Park
This park was established in 1966 and covers one-fourth of Mount Oeta, which stands at 2,152 meters. The entire Mount Oeta has various gorges, some of which are covered under the park’s territory. One of the famous landforms is the Gorgopotamos Gorge, which has since been declared a Special Area of Conservation. The Asopos Valley is another famous spot within the park.
Their park has two wildlife refuges that are home to the following animals: brown bears, hares, roe deer, wild boars, wildcats and wolves. The alpine newt is also common within the park.
3. Pindus National Park
This park in mainland Greece is considered as one of the least visited parks in the entire European continent because of its location, which is within a remote mountainous area. The park was established in 1966.
The park is one of the regions with the highest biodiversity in Greece. The lack of development and human activities has also kept the park pristine. The park’s elevation is between 1,000 and 2,200 meters. The lower and middle elevations host a large population of common beech and European black pine trees. The Bosnian pine trees dominate higher altitudes. There are over 415 species of plants in the park as well as 86 species of mushroom.
When it comes to animals, Pindus is only one of three areas in Greece that hosts the Eurasian brown bears. It is the park’s priority to protect this species of bear. Other animals that call the park home are Balkan chamois, deer, lynxes, squirrels, wild boar, wild cats, and wolves.
4. Samaria Gorge National Park
As the name implies, the park’s centerpiece is the gorge, which was created by the river flanked by the White Mountains and Mt. Volakias. There are certainly other gorges in the park, even within the White Mountains territory. The Samaria, though, is quite imposing with a height of 1,250 meters and with a distance of 16 kilometers long. The most famous attraction of the gorge is known as the Gates, which is a place where the width of the gorge is down to just four meters.
While the Samaria Gorge is worth preserving, the park was established to protect the kri-kri, also known as the Cretan goat. The park is also home to a few other endemic species of flora and fauna.
5. Zakynthos Marine Park
Zakynthos Island has rich marine resources that are attractive to tourists. But while tourism activities are good for Greece, it wasn’t good for the island’s marine residents. Developments started cropping up in the islands, some of which have become potential threats to loggerhead sea turtles, which consider the area its nesting ground. Speedboats have also destroyed some resources important to the turtles and the rest of the underwater resources. This prompted authorities to establish the National Marine Park of Zakynthos in 1999, to preserve a part of the island that is significant to the loggerhead sea turtles migration.
Other important animals in the park are the Mediterranean monk seals, as well as numerous species of fish and other marine critters. There are also various species of water birds that thrive on the island. Some amphibians have also been documented. Authorities are now stricter when it comes to tourism activities within the park to prevent any disturbance to the marine animals.
The park has been listed in the Natura 2000, which is a network of protected areas under the European Union.