Four unknown to date cavesirrefutable witnesses of its geological past Amorgoswere uncovered and mapped during the exploratory mission “Amorgos Cave Expedition 2025» which was recently held on the Cycladic island.

The four caves are vertical varathras and are called “Vothones» according to the local name of Amorgos. They have a depth of 28 to 62 meters. The caves are of significant geological and speleological interest, with varied and impressive geological formations within them. Overall, Amorgos is an island rich in caves, with more than 25 known, but also information about many more undiscovered.

The team that participated in the mission mapped and photographed in detail the four new varathas using modern technologies and collected data on cave microclimatology and hydrology, radon and carbon dioxide, and recorded the presence of fossils of possibly endemic fauna.

The discovery of these four new sinkholes “provides critical information on the geological history and underground waters of Amorgos”, the head of the expedition and speleologist explains to APE-MPE. Prodromos Koulelis.

THE Dr. George LazaridisSpeleology researcher and laboratory teaching staff at the Department of Geology of AUTH, who participated in the team emphasizes that “our observations focused on the detection of calcite, a common mineral for caves, which in the case of one of the caves that came to light appears to be related to geothermal fluids. This is something interesting for the island because today there are no hot springs, so questions are raised about the geological past of the island.” In reality, therefore, “we are at the beginning, we have many questions to answer for an area of ​​great geological interest”, he adds.

During the mission the team continued its exploration deepest chasm of the Cyclades (“Vothon of the French“), 132 meters deep, discovered during last year’s expedition, following information from an Amorgos explorer. During this year’s exploration, an additional impressive part of the cave was identified. In fact, the very low concentrations of carbon dioxide measured inside the cave lead speleologists to estimate that the cave has additional entrances to communicate with the outside environment and not just one entrance.

The expedition took place from September 27 to October 1, 2025 and consisted of 17 speleologists and amateur speleologists – members of speleological associations of Kavala, Thessaloniki, Siderokastro, Athens, Peloponnese and Crete, with the support of the municipality of Amorgos. An amateur cave explorer himself, Prodromos Koulelis describes the unique feelings that this occupation generates. “The cave gives you exploration. The caves are one of the few unexplored places on the planet, the images I have seen are unique. Furthermore, when you explore something, you introspect, you explore yourself. The access to the caves is not easy, you can be for hours on the ropes and for days inside a cave, but when you come out and smell the outside air, despite all the suffering and fatigue, you have a new version of yourself”.

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“Cave, the time wardrobe of History”

A large part of the mission was dedicated to contacting and informing the inhabitants of the island, many of whom showed the research team unexplored caves. “You may pass over and not see the cave, or seeing a hole, you may not be able to understand what is happening from there and below. But the king of the mountain is the shepherd, who knows every stone. Many locals came, gave up their jobs to proudly show us a bothon, as if they discovered it themselves”, says Mr. Koulelis. He adds that “when we give the caves the status they deserve, that they are not a garbage dump, but a time cabinet of history, the resident begins to see it differently, to respect it. So we give it back to him with the rule that this thing is theirs, they are the custodian and they have to look after it.”

“Our proposal is to transform all this research into something that benefits the local community,” Mr. Lazaridis told APE-MPE, who presented the residents with an application for mobile phones, which uses augmented reality and virtually takes viewers inside the caves. This form of soft exploitation can also be extended with QR codes so that visitors can get information about the caves as they visit them virtually.

*The Training and Lifelong Learning Center of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki is organizing during this academic year two training programs for the public in speleological research and management and in field research methods in Speleology, with George Lazaridis as scientific manager of the program.