The ancient spring of Achtenia is located on the mountain-range of Dikaios, at an altitude of 340 meters, between the springs of Kokkinonero and Vourina, with a spectacular view to the North.
A well conserved stone-built vaulted structure is located at the spring of Achtenia, housed within a frustum shaped stonewall, coated nowadays with cement. Its water is collected in an adjacent and constantly overflowing cement tank. A contemporary cross, made of galvanised tubes, is placed on top of the vaulted structure’s entrance, hinting at a religious use of the place, which has not however been confirmed.
A tunnel 2.5 meters long, 0,65 meters wide and 1.8 meters high, reduced to a mere 1.45 meters high at the entrance by a recently and sloppily built cement floor, leads you inside the vaulted structure. The tunnel is held by horizontal monolithic flagstones, covered with cement. The egg-shaped vault of the structure has an asymmetrical elipsoid layout, with a diameter of 4.40 meters at its widest and 2.20 meters at its narrowest. Its cement-layed floor is 0,35 meters higher than the tunnel’s floor.
A small cove, plastered with cement mortar, from where water probably used to gush, is located at the southeastern corner of the vault. An opening, with a trapezoidal profile, at a height of 2.50 meters, 22 to 30 centimeters wide and 40 centimeters high, is located at the right of the entrance of the vault, looking to the east. From the outside, the opening is located on the same level as the inclined slope.
4 flagstones are visible over the spring’s cove. They are placed with a corbelling technique and converge together with the circumferential stonewalls to an horizontal flagstone on the ceiling, eccentrically located a bith higher than the window.
We can conjecture that the flagstone completed the structure’s ceiling or that there was an opening at its location that served as a spout for a well, if ever the tunnel had to be sealed to protect the spring. The chamber’s walls, 1,20 meteres thick up to a height of 1,40 meters, are limed, whereas the tunnel also has successive layers of lime on the sidewalls, which could be a kind of waterproof isolation mortar or layers of salt water. On some higher spots of the chamber, mortar was strengthened with pieces of ceramic.
The spring of Achtenia was registered in 1928 by the Italians, among other 25 important springs of Kos, with the name Actenia.
A fountain lies to the west, from which water flows freely to a trough for animals.
A few meters further down there is another fountain with water from the spring, a beautiful arched construction that also leads to a trough for animals.