The main residential area is Chora, with her narrow streets, wisely oriented, so as to -protect from the open sea winds, with covered spaces to shelter from the strong sunbeams of summer and the heavy rainfalls of winter.

Tiny cube shaped houses like sugar lumps crowded around small squares, whitewashed churches topped with brilliant azure cupolas. The island has 365 churches as many as the days of the year, most of them are Byzantine. Everything is painted white, to resist the merciless heat of greek summer, with blue or green doors and windows to rest the vertical and horizontal lines, softened by gentle curves combining the blue of the aegean sea.