Cave of Apocalypse

Halfway up the mountainside on the road between Chora and Skala, the Cave of the Apocalypse on Patmos marks the spot where, according to Christian tradition, St John received the visions later recorded as the Book of Revelation. John is said to have been exiled to Patmos around the year 95 AD during the reign of the Roman emperor Domitian, at a time when early Christians were regularly banished from the mainland for their beliefs.

Sailors tracing the same coastline today still find something remarkable in following the same string of anchorages, and Patmos remains one of the anchorages you'll visit on a private gulet cruise in Greece that pairs easily with a stop at the cave. Inside, a small chapel of St Anne now frames the cave's entrance, and visitors can see a natural hollow in the rock where John is said to have rested, a ledge where his scribe Prochorus reportedly set down the dictated text, and a triple crack in the stone traditionally linked to the voice that spoke to him.

Together with the Monastery of St John the Theologian and the town of Chora above it, the cave was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1999, recognized as one of the most sacred sites in Christianity. Its plain, unadorned setting is part of what makes it such a striking stop on any tour of the island.