Pyli, Boeotia

Pyli (Πύλη meaning gate) is a village in the Boeotia Prefecture, Greece. Its 2001 population was 666 for the village and 820 for the municipal district. It serves as the seat of the municipality of Dervenochoria and is the only place in the prefecture that shares the same postal code with nearby Attica. Pyli is also a part of the Greater Athens area. Pyli is linked with the road linking Elefsina and Schimatari along with the GR-1 and the GR-77 (Schimatari - Chalkida - Mantoudi - Istiaia). Skourta is located north and northwest of the Attiki Odos (number 6), west of the GR-1/E75 (Athens - Lamia - Larissa - Thessaloniki), northwest of Athens, north of Elefsina, southeast of Thiva and south of Chalkida. Attica is to the south and east and mount Parnitha lies to the east. Its main industry are agriculture.

Villages

 * Pyli, pop. 666
 * Panakto, pop. 102
 * Prasino, pop. 52

Nearest places

 * Skourta, east-southeast
 * Dafni, south-southwest

Geography
The area around Pyli is mountainous and mainly forested with a few grasslands to the south. A few farmlands are around the area. The mountains that are mainly filled with grasslands and rocks covers around the area, forests are found mainly in low lying areas.

History
After World War II and the Greek Civil War, the whole town was rebuilt by the mid to late 1950s. Many of them are abandoned. The population dropped since 1981.

Pyli was hit by a drastic wildfire (see Summer 2007 Wildfires in Greece) on Thursday June 28, 2007 that came from Parnitha westward, it went 15 km west in hours and hit the village by the afternoon, the fires was by its grasslands and by the time it reached, fire trucks, helicopters and planes were stopping the blaze from heading westward. Some damages to property including houses and buildings were reported. The aftermath was that much of the forest turned into an groggy ashy landscape that may take years to restore its natural beauty. Its fires continued drastically until June 30 and slowly disintegrated into sporadic parts and on July 2, the fires had stopped on its entirely. It took hours to contain the blaze. Several mountain roads and trails may remain closed.