Mission 4: Kefalonia

We’re going to be finding out all about Kefalonia in this mission.

Meet Zoom…

Zoom is our friend from Birmingham Airport.

He’s always jetting off around the world – exploring some amazing places.

He’s been keeping a note of his adventures in his audio scrapbook!

Have a listen to Zoom’s Scrapbook entry all about Kefalonia…

Where is Kefalonia?

Kefalonia is an island in a country called Greece.

Have a look at this map to see where Greece is in the world.

Greece has lots of islands and Kefalonia is just one of them. You can see it just off the west coast of mainland Greece on the map below.

So what has Kefalonia got?

It’s famous for its fantastic sights, beaches and pretty seaside villages. The northern rocky coastline has small and clean pebble beaches whilst those on the southern shores are long and sandy. Perfect for sandcastles!

The island also has some amazing caves which are a part of ancient Greek mythology…

Melissani Cave

This is a cave that has a huge lake in it.

In Greek mythology this cave was once chosen as the place of worship for the Greek god of nature and his companion nymphs! Nymphs are a little bit like ancient Greek goddesses.

The water in this cave is so clear that it looks like the boats that go on the water are floating on air!

Cave Drogarati

This cave was discovered about 300 years ago when an earthquake destroyed some rock and revealed the entrance to the cave.

This cave is famous for having some amazing stalactites and stalagmites.

Stalactites are the long pointy shapes you sometimes see in caves. They form as water drips off the ceiling and solidifies as it does, over hundreds of years this keeps happening making each stalactites longer and longer.

Embed from Getty Images

Stalagmites are very similar to stalactites except they come up from the floor. They form from the water that drips from the ceiling onto the floor and solidify over hundreds of years.

Embed from Getty Images

What’s the food like?

Homemade pies are the island’s delicacy – freshly baked meat pies, spinach pies and local favourite cod-pie will get your taste buds dancing. Here’s a photo of one of them.

The great earthquake of 1953

Kefalonia is very close to a major tectonic fault, this is where tectonic plates within the Earth’s crust meet and rub against each other causing earthquakes.

This means that earthquakes are quite common in Kefalonia but in 1953 4 earthquakes happened very close to each other and it caused a lot of damage, it destroyed just about every house on the island!