The coast road
southwest of Mesopotamo leads to Riza (22km).
South of that village another 2km, above the small port of Akrolitha remains were found in 1980 of a Roman nymphaeum dating to the 3rd century AD, which was locally known as 'Frangoekklissia' (which means 'Frankish /Catholic church'. There are three chambers, the main one with four entrances and semicircular niches. The road continues southwest towards the main coast road, climbing steeply and then winding through a long valley, after which the marked road for Zalonga heads towards the village of Kamarina/Zalongon , becomes dirt road and a marked footpath on the left leads in a few minutes to Kassopi (pic above). In 1951-55, 4th century BC ruins were found here, with excavations resuming in 1976. A city, situated on a south facing plateau, was laid out in the Hippodamian system, fortified with a polygonal wall. The Roman burned it in 167BC and it was abandoned with the founding of Nikopolis. Further on it's the Monastery of Zalonga where sixty women danced off the cliff with their children in their arms rather than faced slavery at the hands of Ali Pasha's besieging Albanian army.
The Souliot area to the east of Parga was traditional Souliot territory, the Souliots being an adamantly independent class of Greek warriors who, from the late 18th to the early nineteenth centuries, continually resisted the oppression of Ali Pasha and his Albanian soldiers from their mountain fastnesses above the Akherondas gorge and the mountains to the south. The gorge area, only a few kilometers to the east of the sanctuary (where the waters are serene) is the scene of wild, rushing waters which could accurately be called unnavigable.
One can hike up this gorge from Glyki, which is 12km from Kanalaki on a side road between Preveza and Paramythia (there's a daily bus from Preveza). The road marked 'Skala Tzavelainas', which is paved, leads to a nice taverna (to the left about 1300 meters from the main road, and which has shady seats by the river and shallow water with sand underfoot. If you continue down the road another short distance and bear left, you'll pass a modern chapel a side track ends near Glyki near a tunnel, where you'll see cars parked. The skala (which means stairway) is off to the left, and from there; after about twenty minutes you'll cross a modern bridge over the river, and then an older bridge over a tributary, known as Piyes Souliou (Souliot Springs). From here an upward climb through oaks follows and you walk along the tributary (The Tsangariotiko River), then up a ravine to the little village of Samonidha and Souli village is 3km to the north, where there's a taverna. The whole walk to Souli takes at most around two and a half hours. A half hour walk from Samonidha leads to Kiafa castle, one of the Souliot strongholds against the Turks.
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