At the south easternmost end of the territory of Eresos, near the border with Antissa and more specifically, near the entrance to the bay of Kalloni, 4 km. northeast of Makara, is the area of Apothika. One of the most important monuments of the countryside of Lesbos is preserved there: the Kalochtistos or Rodotoichos or Kalos Toichos (Good Wall), a monumental retaining wall dating back to Archaic times and constructed using the system of the typical masonry of Lesbos (Lesbian building system), in accordance with the island’s building tradition.
Although fragmentarily preserved (with a maximum surviving length of 55.51 m. and a maximum surviving height of 5.10 m.), it is one of the most characteristic examples of the area’s masonry that is handed down to us. According to the style, there is a natural, and not absolute, assembly of the convex sides of the stones, which, in later times becomes more precise and is achieved by the use of a lead rule. On the front side of each stone, the deliberately roughened surface, which is achieved by chamfering small sections in the form of small, rough, uneven cavities, creates an excellent aesthetic effect through the effect of light shading.
The imposing retaining wall was oriented NE-SW and was constructed to contain the backfill of a 42 m. wide plateau, on which architectural remains of monumental character were found, which, according to the German architect and archaeologist Robert Johann Koldewey (1855-1925), belonged to a sanctuary of Archaic times. A 9 m. wide ramp provided access to the large plateau, which was divided into two parts: the south-western and north-eastern parts. From the intricate building complex of the sanctuary, the lower parts of the walls, made of rubble and clay, have been preserved in fragments. The peculiar building complex was as a whole square-shaped, with total dimensions of 41 x 45.5 m., and consisted of four successive, unequal, rectangular spaces: a fore-chamber (15 m. wide), a main space (21.5 m. wide), and two secondary (auxiliary) spaces in the rear part, almost half as small. However, the use of the rooms cannot be determined precisely, as the architectural remains have not been systematically studied until today, while at the same time, no inscriptional evidence or reference in ancient sources survives that would help us to identify the space with certainty. However, the monumental character of the wall, the obvious similarities with other corresponding retaining walls of shrines, such as the Ischegaon (the Retaining Wall) in the sanctuary of Apollo in Delphi, the large-scale plateau and the extensive building remains, make Koldewey’s hypothesis and therefore the interpretation of the site as a sanctuary particularly convincing.
From the surface findings found in the area, the most important are shards of red slip and black glaze pottery, as well as fragments of tiles, one of which is black-glazed, dating back to Hellenistic and Roman times, thus testifying to the continuation of worship in later times and the long life of the sanctuary in time. On the same slope of the mountain, there are remains of other retaining and probably defensive walls, fragmentary preserved foundations of houses and a tower built with the isodomic masonry system, strong indications that refer to a once important harbour of the region, which had important defensive structures that protected the settlement which was probably built in the same area later on.
Today, to the west of the plateau, a small church of Panagia dating back to the Ottoman era, dominates the area, being characteristic for the “second” use of the ancient building material incorporated in its walls. Future investigations in the area, possibly in the context of a systematic excavation, will certainly shed more light on the understanding of the monument, but also on the wider area of this important sanctuary of Lesbos in Archaic times.
