Mount Oros, the mountain of Zeus

Oros, simply 'the mountain', is the highest point of the island at 531 metres, a neat volcanic cone in the south that you can see from Athens on a clear day. In antiquity it was the seat of Zeus Hellanios: myth says that Aeacus, the first king of Aegina, climbed it to pray for rain during a drought that had struck all of Greece, and the rain came. On a broad terrace on its northern slope lie the massive walls of the ancient sanctuary, with the little Byzantine church of the Taxiarches built among them. A path leads from there to the summit, where a small chapel stands and the view takes in the whole Saronic Gulf.