Southwestern Tour Vavili-Armolia -Pyrgi - Olimpi - Mesta - Elata -Vessa - Ag. Georgios - Zyfias This tour leads us south west, starting from the town of Chios. We first encounter the mastihohoria area, with its beautiful landscape of green mastic trees and old fortified villages, where the centuries seem to have stopped going by. In those villages, the external houses formed a huge wall in order to protect the mastic grower's wealth from pirate's raids. Usually, the villages are built around a tower and form labyrinths of small streets and passages, intended to confuse any invader. Although two dozens of villages are still intact, two of them deserve a special attention: Pyrgi and Mesta. Pyrgi's houses are painted in wonderful geometrical shapes, a phenomenon unique on the island. Mesta is the best conserved and the most representative of the medieval villages of the island. In its labyrinth, the visitor's mind easily imagines how difficult life must have been for aggressors from outside! Of course, the visitor can enjoy not only medieval architecture: the area is full of monuments of any historical, and even prehistorically era. The most famous of them are the ruins of a fortress near Armolia, byzantine ruins at Emporio and the remains of a temple in Fana, dedicated to Apollo Faneos. The tour also leads to some of the most beautiful coastal landscapes of the island.One is the area of Mesta with its numerous coves and little harbours. The most famous, of course, is the area of the extinguished volcano near Emporio, with its unique black lava beaches.