When the sun sets, from Chios’ port if look to the northeast, you can see some distant lights glowing above the sea’s surface. This is the islet of Inoussa. You can take a better look at it from the ferryboat on its way to Mytilini. You can even make out its white, well-built, little houses. In the summer the islet seems to be very busy. That is the season when the Inousisian merchant-mariners, many of them shipowners flock there for their vacations. For the visitors who wish to enjoy swimming in its little coves, their chances to stay on the island are restricted to the capacity of a small hotel. Next to Inoussa are many more unpopulated islets creating the Inousses Group with a total area of 14 sq. km. and population 500. The distance from the port of Chios is 9n.m. and there is daily transportation by ferry boats.

History

The island’s strategic position in the middle of the straits formed could not escape the attention of the Venicians and Turks who used it as a naval base. Periodically, the same did the pirates, who named the area for centuries.

Discovering the island

The island’s only community has the status of municipality. It boasts for its many new and old ’’captains’ mansions’’. There are also interesting of churches and chapels as well as a Museum of Naval History. Three km to the  northwest lies the monastery of Evangelismos. Also worthy our attentions the chapel of Zoodochos Pigi (Life Giving Spring) on the islet of Pasha nearby.