The local community of the Aegean island of Naxos was shocked to find that someone had arbitrarily vandalized the sacred path of Zas, which dates back to ancient times and attracts hundreds of tourists every year from all over the world.
The path is a trail of three and a half hours, which was used thousands of years ago by the inhabitants of the Greek island of Naxos, that leads to the top of the sacred mountain Zas, which was dedicated to the god Zeus.
The trail starts in the village of Filoti, passes by the church of Agia Marina Danakou, where in ancient times there used to be a sacred temple of Zeus and ends at the top of Mount Zas, the highest mountain in the Cyclades with a height of 1,003 meters.
This trek had been preserved from ancient times, while during the 19th Century it was redefined. Ever since, thousands of tourists and hiking clubs from Greece and abroad visit the island every year, in order to walk the ancient path.
However, in early May an individual used a bulldozer to destroy almost 600 meters of the trail in order to make his field more easily accessible.
The incident triggered strong reactions by the local community and foreign clubs, while the Environmental Movement of Naxos blamed the local police for negligence and said that the Forest Service should have intervened, as the bulldozer also destroyed several very old trees.
The municipality of Naxos and Small Cyclades condemned the incident and is scheduled to begin restoration works in the coming days.
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