Stone-built riverbed

This is a stone-built ravine, at Kontostavlia, which comes from the southwest, and ends at the main stream of Karavas. The ravine is encased with dry retaining walls, like many others in Kythera. These are traditional hydraulic works that together with the wells, cisterns, water channels and many other constructions made overall management of water resources possible. With these walls, residents managed to tame the natural flow. The traditional arrangement of the streams still provides protection when the water level rises, especially in severe weather conditions, limits the erosion of scarce and valuable soil on the slopes, and provides suitable space for cultivation. Many of these streams served at the same time as paths for the movement of people and animals. This stone-built arrangement of the ravine is very different from modern techniques that usually end in widened streams, without vegetation, with wire bundles.