Open-Air Sanctuary at Tenediotis

In the island’s northeast, in the small valley below Agios Minas Hill, at the site “Tenediontis” — where political exiles once lived — an architectural ensemble of particular interest survives. Amid a green space of oaks lies a terrace supported by a wall in Lesbian masonry, accessed via a stone staircase. Around it are various features, such as niches carved in the rock, benches, terraces, channels for water runoff and formations that suggest fertility symbols. All these compose a space with a clear cultic character. Statues and figurines of a deity would have been placed in the niches, “watching” the rites on the platforms, while water flowed as a libation to the earth. This goddess, identified with the Phrygian Cybele, was widely worshiped in Asia Minor and the northeastern Aegean during the Archaic period.