Mastichora

In this an area with a beautiful landscape of green mastic-trees and old immured villages, the centuries seem to have stopped passing by. On the south coast of Chios, where schinos is one of the most important products, there used to be around 27 villages that were named as "Mastixochoria" since they were the hometowns of the cultivators of the Mastic. A first historical start by them occurred at the time of the Byzantine Empire, but their entity was consolidated during the period of the Italian Empire. Later, the Genovese were the ones that took care of the guardian form and fortification of the Mastixochoria. All this aimed mainly at the construction of means of defense towards the skilful conquerors, but also at the control of the important and powerful monopoly of Mastic.

Afterwards, when Chios Island was dominated by the Turks, the interest was focused on the preservation of the Mastic's monopoly, imposing tough penalties into the smugglers but, at the same time, assuring the inhabitants a well-off life. Therefore, even though those people who were producing Mastic couldn't enjoy the slightest part of their natural wealth, they did not face problems during the Turkish occupation.

However, all the southeast villages were damaged a lot by the earthquake in 1881. Today, only 24 Mastic villages survive, and some of them are even in very good conditions. The most important and the biggest one is Pirgi, and some others are Mesta, Olympoi, Kalamoti, Armolia, Kallimasia, Nenita and Vessa. Altogether, they are very beautiful places, each one with different culture and interests.

In this area the villages' houses were arranged in a special way: the external houses formed a big wall in order to protect the mastic-growers from pirates' raids. Usually, the villages are built around a tower and form labyrinths of small streets and passages, intending to confuse any invader.