One of the unsolved historical mysteries is the Dragon Houses of Euboea, which most likely originates from the Preclassical period of ancient Greece.
There are 23 prehistoric megalithic buildings known as "Dragon Houses" in the highlands of Euboea, the second-largest Greek island after Crete. These buildings are predominantly located in the Ochi Mountain and Styra regions.
These buildings, known as "drakospita" or dragon houses, had nothing to do with dragons but are nevertheless admired today for their architecture, simplicity, and tenacity.
These megalithic homes are mortar-free structures that mimic the pre-Columbian Teotihuacan temple complexes and the stepped Djoser pyramid in pre-dynastic Egypt. They are made of predominantly square or rectangular stones.
Large monolithic stones are used the majority of the time. Their lack of foundations is another notable quality. Its roofs are expertly constructed using massive plates that are pyramidally stacked one on top of the other.
Although nothing is known about these dragon dwellings, there are more structures than was predicted. There are roughly 23 of these megalithic dwellings on the island of Euboea, the majority of which are found between Mounts Ochi and Styra. In fact, researchers are frequently astounded by the single megalith's size and weight, which is sitting atop two similarly large post stones to form a gateway. Both the reason for their construction and the method used to hoist and position this megalith on the poles are a mystery.
It should be noted that the dragon homes' location is also amazing, and that scientists have long questioned their purpose in existence. These stone buildings appear to be placed in strategic locations that provide far observation of the surroundings. At a height of almost 1,400m, the Dragon House of Ochi (or Oche) is located in particular.
Given that these dragon dwellings are located at extremely high elevations, the weight and grandeur of the megaliths are even more remarkable. The architects and builders had to devise a method to transport such big stones from a much lower elevation in order to construct the homes at this height. Also, each structure has a roof opening that resembles a Pantheon and is likely intended to allow moonlight or natural sunlight to illuminate the inside of the buildings.
The English explorer and geologist John Hawkins (1758–1841) was the first to discover the drakospito on Mount Oche and mistook it for an ancient temple.
Afterwards, local researchers took measurements of the drakospita' (or dragon houses) and determined the orientation of the structure using the azimuths of sunset and moonrise.
Researchers believe that the building performed a religious or astronomical function because of a Sirius-rise orientation that dates to around 1100 B.C. This orientation is consistent with earlier archaeological dating based on objects found inside the structure. It might be argued that the renowned drakospito atop Mount Oche operated as both a historic astronomical observatory and a place of prayer.
The locals speculate that they were military installations, farmhouses, or shelters. Historically, the term "dragon" was used to describe anybody having superhuman abilities as well as the fabled beast. Due to this, many people now think that the dwellings' origins can be traced back to the ancient Greek gods.
Archaeological digs have also been made, however they haven't yielded many solutions to the questions surrounding the dragon dwellings. Professor Nikolaos K. Moutsopoulos researched the Mount Oche drakospito and eleven other structures in 1959. In 1960 and 1978–1980, he explored the area around the structures. He found many pots inside the Mount Oche structure, as well as an apothetes, a subterranean building where he also found some utensils, animal bones, pottery fragments, and inscriptions from the Preclassical to the Hellenistic periods. One of the pottery fragments had inscriptions on it in an unidentified type of writing.
