A present day visitor to Andros can very easily follow in the tracks of the ancient footpaths which crisscross all over the island, along it's width and it's breadth. In the past, these ancient footpaths which followed the natural mountain passes and ravines connected the local communities and economic interests of the island. Many of these footpaths are still used today by many of the islanders in order to visit the small chapels ?n their special saints days OR by stockbreeders to take care of their animals. We can make a very natural claim that these footpaths, at least in their basic lay out, have remained the same since ancient times until this very day. the reason for this is because the ability for people to use technical construction methods, which ignore natural crossings, became possible only after the second world war and only came to the island of Andros in very recent times. Even the basic road network of Andros, which was built during the recent pre-war and post-war years, are incisions above the patterns of the original, old footpaths. If one looked today at a military map from the 1960's, one could see an overall picture of the road network of the traditional (farm community) Andros, and it's social and economic lifestyle.

Where do these footpaths lead? The answer is: Everywhere. Every small chapel, every monastery, pasture, cultivated area, natural spring, beach, bay and natural settlement, however small it may be, has at least one of , these ancient footpaths which leads to it. The social and economic life of the island was supported upon these very ancient paved footpaths from the prehistoric times until the post-war years.