What Is Evia Known For?

Evia holds a stretch of water so strange that ancient philosophers spent their careers trying to explain it, and even now the phenomenon isn't fully understood.

Evia is known first for the Euripus Strait, the narrow channel separating Chalkida from the mainland, at points barely 40 meters wide. Its currents reverse direction roughly every six hours, pausing for about eight minutes in between, and the cause traces back to Aegean tidal waves reaching the strait from the north and south Evian Gulfs at slightly different times, raising water levels unevenly and forcing the current to switch. During certain lunar phases, locally called the days of disorder, the current can reverse as many as fourteen times in a single day.

Aristotle himself studied the phenomenon closely, given that his mother came from Chalkida and he spent his final years there after being exiled from Athens. A popular legend holds that he drowned in the strait, unable to solve the mystery of its tides, but that story is generally considered a myth rather than historical fact, since the more reliable historical record indicates he died of a stomach illness in 322 BC. The mathematician Eratosthenes also attempted to explain the currents, and a full scientific account of the phenomenon didn't emerge until much later.

Evia is also known for how unusually accessible it is for an island its size, the second largest in Greece after Crete. Rather than relying on a ferry, two bridges connect Chalkida directly to the mainland, including a modern suspension bridge and an older sliding bridge that still serves as the best vantage point for watching the strait's currents change, connecting the island easily to Athens for a day trip or longer stay.