Karpasi

According to local tradition, the original settlement lay on the plain where Lemnos Airport operates today, at Trochalomandra, where traces of old houses and ruins still survive. Repeated pirate raids then forced the inhabitants to abandon the area and settle on a low hill known as Karpas, east of the island’s central plain. The village’s name has been interpreted in various ways: one view derives it from the Turkish word karabaş (“black head”); another links it to kalpak, the traditional cap of abbots; while a third traces it to the plant karpason, a type of flax or cotton that grew abundantly in the area.