Sinkholes of Argostoli — Attraction in Argostoli Municipality

A very strange place to visit. We stopped for something to eat and drink, not knowing what this beautiful spot was. You can park easily as we did and wandered around the restaurant building to look at the view. Very casually there is a small inlet of the sea traveling along and under a water wheel that is not connected to anything and on a little few steps more and the inlet stops. The water is still moving but weirdly I couldn't work out where the flow was going. On reading the board outside I realised what I was looking at. It's a sink hole and the sea goes miles underground across to the other side of the island and reappears there. Fascinating to us when we realised why so much effort had been put into the restaurant and the stonework for the inlet channel. Along with a small bridge to walk across to the other side we were kept there marveling at the whole view and area. Not knowing the historical significance at all until reading the board we had walked past. Please do go and look at how beautiful the area is. Don't miss it as...

In the island of Kefalonia occurs one of the most astonishing geological phenomena worldwide which is based on a hydrological karst system that connects the Sinkholes of Argostoli with the brackish spring of Karavomilos, Sami. Sea-water flowing into the Sinkholes with a speed of 3 m/sec was used in the past to rotate the water wheel of sea mills (Figure 1) and provide power supply for the operation of a power plant and an ice factory running until the World War II.

These two watermills at Katavothres (sinkholes) were destroyed during the 1953 earthquake and today only the water wheel of one of them remains in place. The first mill was built by the Englishman Stevens in 1835, when he observed the extraordinary hydrogeological phenomenon of the area and decided to exploit it commercially. The second watermill was built by Miliaressis in 1857, who later bought the older Stevens’ mill, while during 1917- 1922 both watermills were owned by Angelos Trombetas, grinding wheat and barley for...

Named Katavothres as local name, you should check about what are these sinkholes before going there, so to be aware of the phenomena, as there is no explanation available on site. The sea water gets inside the holes as there are below sea level, but you cannot see exactly where it infiltrates. The mill is there so you can see the water really moving / entering the holes. Then the sea water travels through the underground karst/limestone system of the island and will come back to surface after 14 days in the other part of the island, into Melissani Cave & Karavomilos...