Let's now leave the old town of Stari Grad and venture to the southeast section of the island to the town of Hvar. The long quay reaching out into the harbor at the center of the picture was built by the Venetians to moor their fleet. At upper right are some of the 20 Pakleni Islets, where forests meet beach and those with boats or water taxi can experience both. The name is mistakenly thought to translate as "Hell's Islands," and some is raised there. In 385 BC, the Greeks also settled here in a town they named "Dimos." Most likely this was a trade center between such great Greek cities as Corinth and the interior of Bosnia-Herzegovina. With the arrival of the Greeks, the natives, perhaps descendant from the cave dwellers, retreated to the hills in the island's interior. To keep them there, the Greeks built walls. (Traces exist today but scholars dispute whether the natives built these earlier to keep the Greeks out. Myth holds that these walls were built by giants such as Odysseus's Cyclops.)
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