3/2/2024 0 Comments Occult phenomena definitionOn the left was a concrete structure, built by the Greek military as an outpost and now seemingly abandoned. To the right of it sat the adjoined chapels of St Spyridon and St Nicholas. There, at the foot of a rugged, ochre-grey cliff was a crescent-shaped opening in the rock. ![]() Walking up the unmarked trail and regularly hopping over small puddles of slush and muddy water, the panoramic views of Athens stretching out to the Saronic Gulf made up for what at times seemed like a fruitless hike.įinally, after about 25 minutes, the GPS insisted we turn left. After driving through a maze of Penteli’s slopes, we left the car at the beginning of a dirt road. On a mellow January 2019 morning, I visited Davelis Cave with a couple of friends. Whatever the truth, the allure of past-era cabals of desperados was catalytic in renaming the spine-chilling catacomb in honour of the iconic outlaw. There’s even a legend that the brigand, who had a fling with the French duchess Placentia, discovered tunnels zigzagging through the cave’s guts and terminating at his lover’s mansion in the village of Pendeli in Athens’ northern suburbs. In the 19th Century, notorious brigand Christos Natsios, aka Davelis, allegedly squatted in the cave with his gang. During the Middle Ages, hermits and Orthodox monks started flocking to Penteli either for spiritual retreats or because they were religiously persecuted, and the place was named ‘ Σπήλαιο των Αμώμων’ (‘Cave of the Immaculate’), hence the presence of two adjacent Byzantine chapels built directly into the cave’s entrance. Visitors have reported electronics going out of control, glowing orbs, ineffable creatures, water dripping upwards, ghostly voices, spooky etchings, remnants of satanic rituals and more.ĭavelis Cave was used as a shrine as far back as the 5th Century, when devotees worshipped Pan, their goat-footed god of shepherds and orgies. Resting in and above an ancient marble quarry and averaging a width of 45m and a height of 62m, Davelis Cave is a vast, mesmerising and steeply descending grotto that could well serve as the backdrop to a horror movie. Yet, it was Davelis Cave, located on the mountain’s south-west side, that particularly piqued Makridopoulos’ interest. Penteli is globally acclaimed for its ancient quarries and the incomparably crystalline structure and golden-hued tint of its marble that was used to construct the sacred temple of Parthenon as well as other glorious monuments. “ drawn to the energy of this mysterious and ancient mountain,” he told me. ![]() ![]() Devouring books about occult phenomena from childhood to adulthood, he soon became curious about the pyramid-shaped mountain of Penteli, located about 15km north-west of Athens. Dimitrios Makridopoulos has always been fascinated by the preternatural.
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