Zalongo Monument

In December 1803 the Souliotes, the fighters of the mountain villages of Souli, were defeated by Ali Pasha. They were forced to leave their homeland under an agreement that Ali did not honour. Some of them were trapped near the monastery on Mount Zalongo. Rather than be captured, a group of Souliot women went to the edge of the cliff with their children and threw themselves off, one after another. According to tradition they were dancing and singing as they went. Sources give different numbers for the women, often around 60. The "Dance of Zalongo" became one of the best-known episodes in modern Greek history.

The monument was proposed in 1950 by George Sakkas, the head teacher of Kamarina's primary school. It was paid for by fundraising drives in schools across Greece. Sculptor George Zongolopoulos and architect Patroklos Karantinos won the national competition, and they supervised the work without pay. It was built between 1954 and 1960, with materials at first carried up by hand and by mule. It was unveiled on 10 June 1961.

The abstract female figures stand on a cliff-top plateau high above Kamarina. They are 18 m long and 13 m high, made of reinforced concrete clad in about 4,300 whitish limestone blocks. Lightning, frost and rust had damaged it, so the Municipality of Preveza restored it with the Zongolopoulos Foundation between 2008 and 2013. Every summer Kamarina holds a festival, the "Zalongeia".