Agroforestry landscape

Characteristic agroforestry landscape with olive groves and almond trees on terraces (“skalia”). The whole ravine of Karavas is carved by man. By creating artificial horizontal areas on sloping soils, the residents saved useful space for cultivation, thus retaining the scarce and precious soil utilizing rainwater, which is filtered on terraces and stored underground. In the past, there was organized production and export of pears and almonds in the area. They collected the almonds in sacks which were loaded on one side of a donkey, were then transported to the cafe, and weighed so the producers would get paid. During the interwar period, the almonds were first moved by boat to Kapsali, where merchants had warehouses and a crew of women to crush them. From there they exported almonds to Trieste and Piraeus. Many fields were abandoned during the intense migration flows of the 20th century. Thus, olive trees and almond trees mixed with maquis vegetation now cover about 40% of Kythera.