A mountain rises from the sea, and that's the whole island. Samothrace, in the northern Aegean, is first and foremost the mass of Mount Saos, which leaps from the beach to an elevation of 1,611 metres, one of the highest peaks in the Aegean islands. Homer placed Poseidon there, seated on the summit to watch the Trojan War. Ships, generally small ones, land their passengers at Kamariotissa, the island's only port, a waterfront village where the tavernas serve the morning's catch and goats wander about with disarming nonchalance. The island has neither large hotels nor luxury boutiques: it offers something else, and that something has to be earned.

The Sanctuary of the Great Gods

Six kilometres from the quay, set against a wooded valley facing the sea, lies one of the most mysterious sites in Greece: the Sanctuary of the Great Gods. For more than a thousand years, pilgrims from across the Greek and then Roman world were initiated here into mysteries whose fiercely guarded secret has never reached us. Philip II of Macedon, father of Alexander the Great, is said to have met his wife Olympias here during the nighttime ceremonies. It was here that the Winged Victory of Samothrace was discovered in 1863, the statue that now towers over the grand staircase of the Louvre; the site museum displays a cast of it and tells the story of the excavation. Walking among the foundations of the Rotunda of Arsinoe, in the silence of the valley, leaves a lasting, almost physical impression.

Chora, the hidden village

The island's capital was built five kilometres from the shore, invisible from the sea: an age-old precaution against pirates. Chora spreads its red-roofed houses like an amphitheatre beneath the ruins of a medieval castle built by the Genoese Gattilusi family. Cobbled lanes climb between cafés, flower-filled balconies and small squares from which the view plunges down to the coast. Here you grasp the nature of an island that has stayed off the tourist circuits, where tourism has never standardized anything. Distances remain short, but the terrain imposes its own rules: it's best to arrange a taxi or an organized excursion to visit the sites one after another without rushing.

The island of running water

Samothrace is an island of springs and streams, a rarity in the Aegean. On the north coast, the Fonias trail follows a canyon shaded by centuries-old plane trees: an easy forty-five-minute walk leads to the first vathra, a pool of clear water carved at the foot of a waterfall by centuries of current, where the bravest swim in fresh running water all year round. Farther along the same coast, the hamlet of Therma owes its name to its hot baths, known since antiquity. Between two valleys, the pebble beaches often remain deserted, even in summer. Everywhere, the goats — more numerous than the residents — clamber over the low walls and keep a placid eye on passersby.

What the island leaves the traveller

Few Aegean port calls offer such a concentrated experience: an ancient sanctuary shrouded in secrecy, a Homeric mountain, waterfalls and villages living at their own pace. As you head back to sea, you watch Mount Saos disappear into the haze for a long time, reflecting that Greece's most famous statue left this tiny island for Paris, but that its true pedestal is still here, facing the north wind.