KALYMNOS

SPONGES, THE BENDS AND ROCK CLIMBING

diver

We recently sailed with Variety Cruises on what they termed “Unexplored Greece”. The Panorama first took us to Ikaria, where the mythological tragedy of Icarus ended, Patmos, where St. John wrote the Book of Revelations and Lipsi, where we drank a lot of wine.

The next stop in our island-hopping adventure in Greece had us in Kalymnos, one of the larger islands in the Dodecanese with a greater population than any islands we had visited up until then. The island is famous for the harvesting of natural sponges that since ancient Greece have been harvested by divers. For centuries sponges was the main source of income on the island. Sons would learn the trade from their fathers and the island’s identity was with the sea.

A BIT OF HISTORY

For centuries men would freedive to depths reaching 100 feet. They would use a heavy stone, called a skandalopetra that was rounded with a rope threaded through a hole in the middle to help speed their descent and to preserve air. Depending on the diver’s lung capacity he could remain underwater for up to five minutes. The diver, usually naked, would fill a net with sponges before being hauled up by the crew at the surface. Since ancient Greek times this was the method of harvesting sponges.

Sponges at museum

Although freediving for sponges was a dangerous profession, the industry took a tragic turn for the worse with the use of diving suits, that began in the mid-1860s. Air would be pumped down to the diver wearing a helmet and suit. This allowed the diver to stay underwater longer and deeper than with freediving. Not understanding the dangers of decompression sickness, where dissolved gases, primarily nitrogen form bubbles in the blood and body tissues, causing excruciating pain. Also called the bends, thousands of men were crippled, paralyzed or died when they came up too quickly. 

When we took a tour of a sponge museum in Kalymnos the guide spoke of seeing men crippled from the bends. As scuba divers we know that we need a “safety stop”, about 15 feet below the surface for five minutes to allow our bodies to reacclimate to surface pressures. At the museum there was a picture of a diver on the surface smoking a cigarette. We were told that if a man could inhale cigarette smoke after he ascended, he was okay. If not, he would go back into the water to decompress.  

picture displayed at
Kalymnos sponge museum

Different safety protocols.

SPONGE WORTHY

Ancient Greek writings of Aristotle and Plato both mentioned sponges. Homer mentions sponges in both the Iliad and the Odyssey. They were used in a myriad of way, from bathing, as padding for helmets, portable drinking vessels, and as a contraceptive. The Romans used a xylospongium, literally a sponge on a stick, to wipe themselves after defecating.

By the mid-20^th Century though overfishing and pollution nearly drove the sponges, and the industry of harvesting them, to extinction. The introduction of synthetic sponges was another debilitating blow to natural sponge harvesting, which involves a labor-intensive process of cleaning and shaping to ready them for market.

Roman xylospongium 

 Today, the tradition of harvesting sponges continues on Kalymnos, albeit at a much lesser scale when fleets of trawlers would go out for months to harvest sponges. In Pothia the main town of Kalymnos, and where we docked overnight, there are still a lot of boats devoted to sponge harvesting and workshops and museums selling sponges to tourists.

CLIMBING

Less than 20% of Kalymnos can be farmed, the rest is barren and rocky, which has proved to be another tourist attraction to the island. In the past several decades Kalymnos has become a rock-climbing holiday destination with several outfitters serving this new reason to visit this island.  

OUR VISIT

After a swim stop on Kefala Beach where the Panorama’s tender ferried us to shore and the crew set up umbrellas for shade on the sun-splashed cove we docked the busy main port of Pothia, the main town of Kalymnos.

 

It was hot, but we had time to head into town for lunch. Several tavernas line the port and we went to To Steki Ton Nautikon as per a recommendation by our cruise director Kristina with four other passengers from the Panorama. The table shared several appetizers. Janet and I shared a Greek salad and a bottle (small) of ouzo. You’ll know the restaurant when you see it by the boat suspended over the entranceway.

TO STEKI TON NAUTIKON, KALYMNOS

Our tour began with a very touristy tram ride through the town with the guide pointing out different statues of a naked freediver and of Antonis Kampourakis wearing a dive suit. Still alive, Antonis dove until he turned 72. 

Freediver statue
Kalymnos

The tram tootled through town with the guide pointing out that streets here were not named, but are known by the church that is in that neighborhood. We then went to one of several little museums along the port for a demonstration about the steps to glean and shape natural sponges for market, shown artifacts like the diving helmets and skandalopetra and an array of sponges from luffa rough to silky smooth. All were for sale. They also had displayed a picture of a diver smoking a cigarette, obviously free of decompression sickness.

Variety Cruises made our stay on Kalymnos “Greek Night” and ouzo flowed freely and Greek food was served for dinner. On the sun deck afterwards we were entertained with traditional Greek dances including the Kalymnos Sponge Diver dance, which has a man crippled by the bends, at first unable to dance, but “cured” by the music.  

Antonis Kampourakis

Janet retired, but I wanted another walk around town and settled on one of countless tavernas in Pothias all blaring the Stoiximan Greek Basket League Finals for one more ouzo and meze.

BTW the Olympiacos Heroes defeated the Panathinaikos Fighters to take the Stoiximan GBL 2026 championship.

 Thanks for reading!

Love Janet and greg

© 2026 by Gregory Dunaj

Here is a Youtube video of a Kalymnos Sponge Diver Dance: