The present population of Melos is collected into six or seven villages in the north-western district, all within a mile or so of the citadel of Kastro. But the whole island is dotted with small churches, some in the existing villages, some on the sites of villages which have disappeared, and others in isolated positions, used only once or twice a year as places of pilgrimage. These churches are interesting in many ways, both as showing the almost Oriental conservatism with which the Greek Church clings to its ancient methods of church-building, and because, although simple in the extreme, they yet possess certain marked differences of structure from the better-known churches of Attica and the mainland, to which, in point of design, they are often superior.