The story
Welcome to Avlaki, the sandy beach at the south-eastern edge of Porto Rafti. This is the municipal beach of Markopoulo, and it has flown the Blue Flag every summer since 2003. Stand at the water's edge and look out. You are facing east, towards the open sea. The hill on your left is Koroni, the peninsula that closes the bay to the south. The ancients called it Koroneia. In the 260s BC, during the Chremonidean War, King Ptolemy the Second of Egypt sent a fleet to help Athens against the Macedonians.
His admiral Patroklos landed troops here and turned the peninsula into a fortified camp. Archaeologists of the American School excavated it in 1960. They traced a wall almost a kilometre long across the landward side, with nine towers, and a second ring of walls around the summit. Most of the coins they found were Ptolemaic. Enjoy your swim.
Sources (7)
Every fact in this text comes from these sources.
