EASTERN CRETE

The G. & A. Mamidakis Foundation, has for two decades 

now made ongoing efforts to present to the public major 

cultural events, always directly related to Tourism. 

Taking as our point of departure our native island of Crete, 

a crossroads of cultures from East and West, we have 

sought to propose seminal exhibitions of Greek and 

international Contemporary Art for art lovers. 

Perhaps unique for the 48 sculptures on display in its 

gardens, the MINOS BEACH ART HOTEL boasts of a 

substantial collection of works by leading Greek and 

international artists. 

Continuing our cultural activities today, we have 

established, illustrated, documented and explored 

untrodden paths of Eastern Crete in a tasty 144-page 

catalogue titled: 

Awake your Senses 

Discover the unknown Crete 

Eastern Crete - book one 

We trust that the publication of these practical catalogues, 

which also provide information about other unknown 

destinations-monasteries, archaeological sites-will enable 

modern-day travellers to experience another side of Crete, 

the authentic, unexplored inland regions of the island, just 

like the international travellers who discovered and 

recorded the charms of our land in the 17th and 18th 

centuries. 

Gina Mamidakis 

President 

G. & A. Mamidakis Foundation

JUDITH LANGE MARIA STEFOSSI 

awake your senses 

DISCOVER THE UNKNOWN CRETE 

Eastern Crete - Book One 

Publication of this book has been made possible thanks to Gina 

Mamidakis, President of the G.& A. Foundation and bluegr Mamidakis 

Hotels group, and long-time patron of culture and the arts. The book is 

dedicated to those ever-curious travellers who wish to learn more of 

the beautiful region of eastern Crete. 

© copyright text and photographs by Judith Lange - Maria Stefossi 

© copyright edition by the G.& A. Foundation and bluegr Mamidakis hotels group. 

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written 

permission from the authors.

4

Crete is the island of which Homer sang, "Along the winedark 

sea, by water ringed, there lies a land both fair and 

fertile", a mysterious and magical land, source of the myths 

of the Greek world. Zeus, king of the gods of the ancient 

Greeks, was born in a grotto here, and it was here too that 

he died and came back to life. 

This book tells of the beauty of eastern Crete, of the 

Prefecture of Lasithi, with its mountain ranges, vast 

plateaus, fertile valleys, arid plains, magnificent beaches 

and its ancient memories. To discover the authentic Crete 

one must travel slowly, drawn by curiosity not only to the 

great archaeological sites and monuments, but also to the 

landscape and the sky, the houses and the rocks, because 

on Crete everything is myth, legend and history: the 

mountains, the grottoes, the gorges, the trees, the stones 

and even the scent of the shrubs in bloom. 

5

MINOS BEACH art hotel 

Escape in style 

Experience the wonder of Cretan luxury with aromatic gardens 

and distinctive architecture. 

Located on the waterfront in the magical area of Ayios Nikolaos, 

in the eastern part of Crete, the town centre is a mere ten minute 

walk away. 

Set within a serene landscape and unique environs thus ensuring 

an unforgettable experience in one of the 129 beautifully and 

spaciously appointed bungalows. All are equipped with balconies 

or private terrace with unique views of the azure sea and 

extensive gardens, air-condition, direct dial telephone, mini bar, 

TV, in room safe, hairdryer and bathroom. Our Executive and 

Presidential suites are spacious and offer a private swimming 

pool. 

6

MINOS BEACH art hotel 

You can awaken your senses at Minos Beach Art hotel, with its 

unique artistic environment of 45 works of Greek and foreign 

artists. A local and international culinary choice of traditional 

Cretan cuisine and unique gourmet tastes for exquisite dining in 

our restaurants or enjoy an array of thirst-quenching cocktails in 

our two bars. 

An abundance of 

recreational activities 

and leisure facilities will 

ensure fun and 

entertainment 

throughout your stay 

in an environment of 

tranquillity and luxury. 

7

CANDIA PARK VILLAGE 

Experience a world of fun 

and recreation 

Candia Park Village is an ideal place for 

families and couples 

of all ages. Modelled on a traditional Cretan 

village, all 222 apartments are spaciously equipped and offer a 

magnificent waterfront location overlooking the turquoise 

waters of Mirabello Bay. 

Set in the environs of a traditional Cretan Village with extensive 

gardens, the clock square, the Greek coffee house, all add to the 

charm of this picturesque village of traditional hospitality. 

All apartments are spacious of 40 m2 and 60 m2 offering private 

balconies or terrace. Each can accommodate from 2 to 6 persons 

and are fully equipped with airconditioning, bathroom, direct 

dial telephone and a kitchenette to prepare afternoon coffee or 

tea or perhaps a light meal. 

A variety of restaurants with a wide choice of a la carte items, 

sunny bars for thirst-quenching drinks and light snacks provide a 

unique ambience with panoramic views of Mirabello bay. A mini 

market is available. 

8

CANDIA PARK VILLAGE 

The Candia Park Village is a complete holiday village making it 

the ideal place for relaxation and amusement. Facilities include 

sea water and fresh water swimming pools, Jacuzzi, tennis 

courts, private beach, water sports and recreational areas for all 

tastes and age groups. The highlight is our mini club for our 

young friends from 4 to 12 years of age that offers stimulating 

activities, competitions and games. 

9

CHAPTER 1 

SACRED AND PROFANE 

IN THE SHADOW 

OF MOUNT DIKTI

AYIOS NIKOLAOS 

KRITSA 

PANAYIA Y KERA 

LATO 

KATHARO 

LASSITHI 

KARPHI

C H A P T E R 1 

Ayios Nikolaos 

An engraving 

representing the 

Venetian castle of 

Ayios Nikolaos: 

today nothing 

remains of this 

fortress 

The excavations of 

the ancient town in 

the city 

It is hard to imagine that a century and 

a half ago Ayios Nikolaos - one of Crete's 

richest and liveliest cities - was, as an old 

document attests, only a tiny village of just 

95 souls. Ayios Nikolaos, capital of the 

Prefecture of Lasithi, has the appearance of 

a relatively new city, but its history is very 

ancient, even if the evidence of its turbulent 

past is now buried under modern buildings. 

Thanks to its splendid position 

overlooking the gulf of Mirambelo (or as the 

Venetian has it, Mirabello or "beautiful view") 

the site was chosen by the ancient Dorians 

(ninth to seventh centuries B.C.) for the port 

of Lato, an important fortified settlement 

between the mountains near Kritsa. The city 

was then called Lato pros Kamara and was 

famous for its safe harbour. One of the 

wonders of the place was considered to be 

the small lake of Voulismeni - today linked 

to the sea by a narrow canal and surrounded 

by restaurants and cafes - a lake of dark and 

unfathomable waters, also known as 

12

Xepatomeni (bottomless), sacred to Athena 

and Artemis who, as the legend goes, 

bathed their divine bodies here. 

The city declined after the Roman 

conquest but acquired new importance 

during the Byzantine period, when it 

became the seat of the bishopric of Kamara: 

of that era there remains the little church of 

Ayios Nikolaos of the tenth or eleventh 

century, with rare frescoes from the 

iconoclast period when the ecclesiastical 

authorities forbad the physical 

representation of sacred images. 

At the beginning of the thirteenth 

century the Genoese and Venetians fought 

for possession of the coast and initially the 

Genoese, led by the gentleman-pirate Enrico 

Pescatore, prevailed. Pescatore erected the 

castle of Mirambelo, promptly destroyed by 

the Venetians to whom the island of Crete 

was assigned by the treaty of Adrianoupoli 

in 1204. 

Hurriedly reconstructed, the castle was 

briefly occupied by the Turks in 1645, then 

The small church of 

Ayios Nikolaos 

dating from the 

tenth or eleventh 

century 

Lake Voulismeni 

13


A medieval 

archer from the 

region of Sfakia: 

during the 

nineteenth 

century many 

sfakiotes arrived 

in Ayios Nikolaos 

taken back by the Venetians who, however, 

decided to destroy it once more themselves 

for the sake of not leaving it in Turkish 

hands: not one stone remains of the 

celebrated fort atop the highest 

hill of Ayios Nikolaos. 

The city was entirely 

abandoned when, during the 

second half of the nineteenth 

century, groups of exiled 

sfakiotes arrived from the 

mountains of western Crete, 

and the place slowly began to 

come to life again. From that 

moment onwards the reborn 

city would be called Ayios 

Nikolaos, taking its name from 

the little ninth-century 

Byzantine church which was the 

only surviving testimony to 

have resisted all the turbulence 

of this history. Every 6th 

December there is a great feast 

dedicated to St. Nicholas, 

patron saint of fishermen. 

One must is a visit to the city's 

Archaeological Museum which possesses 

beautiful finds from the past forty years of 

excavations in eastern Crete: ceramics, gold, 

idols (among which there are a large number 

of votive offerings from the Minoan peak 

sanctuaries), sarcophagi and glass. 

14

ARCHAEOLOGICAL MUSEUM 

OF AYIOS NIKOLAOS 

Skull with a wreath of gold leaves 

from the Roman cemetery at 

Potamos, first century A.D. and 

Late Minoan clay sarcophagi or 

larnakes 

Late Minoan 

female 

worshipper 

from the 

cemetery at 

Myrsini 

Pottery dating 

from the Late 

Minoan period 

Clay vessel 

from the 

fourteenth 

century B.C. 

found in the 

Palace of Malia 

and 

Daedalic 

figurines from 

the eighth and 

seventh 

centuries B.C.


Kritsa and Panayia y Kera 

Kritsa stretches out like a white lizard 

above a sea of olive trees at the mouth of a 

dark gorge beneath the mountain heights of 

the Dikti that surround two high plains, the 

immense Lasithi plateau and the more 

modest Katharo plateau. 

The white village 

of Kritsa above a 

green valley of 

olive trees 

Kritsa, with its narrow alleyways, the low 

houses jumbled one over another, its very 

colourful traditional costumes, its numerous 

kafeneion and taverns, seems the archetypal 

"Cretan village", even if the definition 

"village" seems reductive for this fairly large, 

extended country town. It is so very "Cretan" 

that in 1957 the American film director Jules 

Dassin chose Kritsa and its inhabitants for 

the setting of the film He, who must die 

based on Nikos Kazantzakis' famous novel 

The Greek Passion which told a modern 

version of the passion of Christ. Every year 

on Good Friday there is a sumptuous 

procession through Kritsa during which the 

epitaphios, a catafalque covered with 

flowers, is carried through the town, amidst 

prayers, laments and song. 

However, before arriving at Kritsa one 

should pay a visit to one of the most 

beautiful and important Byzantine churches 

on Crete: the Panayia y Kera (the Madon- 

16

Among the narrow 

alleyways of Kritsa 

na of the Creation) dating from the 

thirteenth or fourteenth century, with three 

naves and an unusual three-pointed facade, 

surrounded by tall cypresses. 

The arrangement of the 

paintings that cover each of 

the internal walls observes the 

rigid hierarchy required in that 

period: first God and the 

angels, then the life of Jesus 

and Mary, followed by 

representations of Paradise and the Last 

Judgement, biblical stories, saints and, 

finally, images of men known for their faith. 

The saturated colours (the dark red of ripe 

pomegranates, the green of the leaves of 

ancient olive trees, the ochre and dark 

brown of the earth) and the close-packed 

sequence of images, each different, each 

powerful and vigorous, immersed in the 

semi-darkness, rather dizzy the viewer, and 

this was, perhaps, precisely what the artist 

intended. 

The Byzantine 

church of Panayia y 

Kera with its 

beautiful frescoes 

17


Lato 

Lato, once an 

important Dorian 

city-state, amidst 

a beautiful 

mountainous 

landscape 

These small 

daedalic figurines 

are typical of the 

Doric style of 

sculpture that 

flourished during 

the eighth and 

seventh centuries 

B.C. 

As everywhere in Greece, on Crete the 

sacred and the profane live side-by-side, and 

if on one hand churches and monasteries 

record the profound religiousness of the 

population, numerous ancient ruins evoke 

the foreign powers, wars and conflicts that 

have tormented the island over the 

centuries. Some kilometres before arriving at 

Kritsa a turning off the main road leads to 

Lato, one of the island's best-preserved 

ancient cities, enclosed between two hills 

below Mount Thylakas. The city-state, which 

took its name from the goddess Leto, 

mother of Apollo and Artemis, was founded 

in the eighth century B.C. by Dorians hailing 

from the Greek mainland, who invaded 

Crete in around 1000 B.C., chasing the native 

inhabitants from their lands: they spoke a 

dialect similar to Greek and proclaimed 

themselves descendents of the offspring of 

Hercules. Strengthened by their absolute 

authority over the island after the fall of the 

Minoan and Mycenaean kingdoms, they 

18

made new laws, minted coins with the 

effigies of Artemis and Hermes and imposed 

a new social order on the population of the 

area. 

Lato was born as a fortified city 

stretching across six terraces with a double 

acropolis, a vast agora and a prytaneion, 

which functioned as administrative centre 

and banqueting hall for the guests of 

honour who dined here sitting on the stone 

benches of the hestiatorion. A monumental 

stairway marks the entrance to the 

prytaneion, while another, not far from a 

large temple (perhaps dedicated to Apollo) 

has been identified as the "theatre space". 

The city flourished up until the Hellenistic 

period and the ancient writers affirm that 

this was the birthplace of Niarchos, valorous 

general and friend of Alexander the Great. 

A careful observation of the structure and 

the materials that form the buildings, the 

roads and the doors is worthwhile: the 

ancient system of construction has been 

handed down through the centuries, and 

some of the same architectural details can 

still be seen in the old stone-built country 

houses dotted among the mountains 

around Kritsa. 

With its strong 

walls and 

monumental 

buildings, Lato 

is the bestpreserved 

of the 

Cretan cities of 

the Doric/ Classical 

period 

19


The Katharo Plateau 

Less well-known, smaller and more hidden 

than Lasithi, the plateau of Katharo is 

reached via a road (all curves) that begins at 

the crest of the town of Kritsa. Climbing up 

amidst silver-grey rocks that glitter in the 

sunlight in contrast with the red soil, and 

among low tough-leaved shrubs that form 

anthropomorphic and zoomorphic figures 

like little sculptures, one has the sensation of 

travelling through an archaic land, fixed and 

solid, as though it were petrified. The few 

trees have dark hat-shaped crowns that give 

shade to the roots and offer relief to sheep 

and goats in search of some cool. 

A dark grotto on 

the way to the 

Katharo plateau 

Halfway along the route towards the 

plateau (where there is a magnificent view 

across the gulf of Mirambelo) a small road 

sign indicates the existence of a grotto 

which is to be found about three-hundred 

metres further along the slope, not difficult 

to reach. The triangular mouth of the grotto 

allows a glimpse of a steep descent through 

two galleries into the dark bowels of the 

earth amid grey and pink-ochre striped 

rocks. 

Continuing along the road and looking 

attentively towards the hills, one notes the 

mitates - now in ruins and camouflaged in 

the landscape, but with a very interesting 

architectural structure: these are the 

20

small stone houses of the shepherds and 

peasants who took refuge here during the 

months of mountain pasture. Almost always 

rectangular in form - but also, at times, 

circular like the tholos (beehive) tombs - the 

building of the mitates involved choosing 

with care the individual stones, evaluating 

the shape and dimensions in order to lay 

them expertly one on top of another until a 

perfect wall was formed through which 

there filtered neither sun, nor wind nor rain. 

At the centre of the single room a robust 

tree trunk with a forked top functions as a 

column, holding up the roof of branches and 

canes, whilst the entrance is marked by two 

vertical pilasters surmounted by a stone slab, 

a modest version of the monumental portals 

of the ancient cities or of megalithic houses. 

Now abandoned and used only 

sporadically, the mitates contain small signs 

of an austere life: a blackened hearth, the 

occasional cooking pot with a hole in it, 

frayed ropes for tying up the animals, or 

troughs cut into the stone. Observing these 

lifeless houses it is natural to wonder how 

much longer they will resist sun, wind and 

rain before crumbling definitively. 

The remains of 

old stone houses 

or mitates are 

part of the 

landscape as 

much as the 

rocky hills and 

withered trees 

21


Every season 

has its own 

colours at the 

Kataharo 

plateau: green 

fields in 

springtime, 

yellow earth in 

summer 

Curve after curve, between oaks and 

carobs with their tormented outlines that 

seem born from the rock, the mountain 

suddenly opens out offering a spectacular 

view over the entire Katharo plateau, 

surrounded by the bare mountains of the 

Dikti. Fields cultivated with grain and 

vegetables, fruit trees (in particular pears, 

apples, figs and pomegranates) and great 

stretches of meadows for pasture, few 

houses, few men and the odd little white 

church form a unified and compact pattern. 

The plateau, which in springtime is full of 

flowers and green grasses, in summer is 

coloured yellow with stubble and the 

ploughed soil that becomes as fine and 

dusty as face-powder. Katharo is the summer 

reserve of the people of Kritsa and at given 

periods all the flocks of sheep in the zone 

converge here for shearing: imagine the 

sound produced by the bleating of 

thousands of animals echoing through 

the mountains! 

22

From Katharo a stony trail (to follow 

only in a robust car or on foot) climbs back 

down towards the coast in the direction of 

Kroustas, initially crossing through desolate 

landscapes with strange cumuli of dark 

green stones that glitter in the sunlight like 

shards of glass. The road follows the course 

of an underground river, dry on the surface, 

which creates little oases of green amidst the 

stones. Along the highest pass there opens 

up extraordinary scenery: the simultaneous 

vista of the northern coast of Crete looking 

towards Europe and of the southern coast 

that looks towards Africa at the point at 

which the island is narrowest, on one side 

the gulf of Mirambelo and on the other the 

Libyan Sea. A panorama from which one 

understands the wonders of Cretan 

geography. 

From this point one can continue east 

along a road that is asphalted only in parts 

towards Kroustas and Kritsa or to Istron on 

the coast. Near Kritsa we encounter the 

church of Ayios Ioannis Theologos with 

three apses and very beautiful iconostasis 

while near Kroustas one can visit the small 

white church of Ayios Ioannis, decorated 

with rare paintings dating from 1347, with 

images of severe saints and fathers of the 

church. 

Ayios Ioannis 

and Ayios 

Ioannis 

Theologos: two 

churches with 

interesting 

frescoes and old 

icons 

23


The Lasithi Plateau 

"Situated above the mountain summits, 

flat and very beautiful, and an almost 

miraculous work of nature," this is how 

a Venetian document of 1600 describes the 

Lasithi plateau. The plain appears like an 

immense shell, not unlike a spent crater, 

amid the mountain crags of the Dikti, at 

a height of around 850 metres: patterned 

with the rigid and regular geometries of the 

fields, its divisions recall the city plan of 

ancient Miletus. Here there grow fruit trees 

of every kind, vegetables, potatoes, grain 

and walnuts, and in the spring millions of 

poppies blossom creating a red carpet that 

stretches out between the mountains. 

Isolated houses, small villages and the 

monasteries of Vidianis and Kroustalenias 

crown the plateau which, although 

remaining essentially agricultural, has given 

over to an intense tourism. 

Monastery Vidianis 

and Monastery 

Kroustalenia: 

places of worship 

26

Not many years ago, 

when the place was 

still only accessible 

on mule-back, 

around 10,000 

windmills ornate 

with white canvas 

sails pumped up the 

water that served for 

the crops, but now 

very few remain. 

27


The grotto of 

Trapeza was a 

site of cult 

activity up to 

the Early 

Minoan period 

Once an inaccessible region, the 

plateau has been inhabited since the 

Neolithic period, around 7,000 years ago, 

as testified by the bone fragments and tools 

discovered in the grotto of Trapeza, which 

remained sacred for the Minoans, as a 

dwelling place of the gods of the 

underworld. Because of its protected 

position amid the mountains, Lasithi 

became a place of refuge for the native 

populations from the period of the Dorian 

invasions to the Venetian and Turkish 

occupations, and even during the Second 

World War. For fear of the rebel groups, in 

1263 the Venetians deported all the 

inhabitants of the plateau down towards the 

valley, prohibiting any form of cultivation 

for 200 years. Without its fruits, this fertile 

land suffered terrible famine and in the mid 

1400 s it was decided to repopulate the 

plain, which in the meantime had become a 

swampland requiring large-scale 

reclamation. During the Turkish dominion 

too, Lasithi was continuously besieged, but 

never completely taken. 

There are numerous grottos and 

caverns in the rocky walls around the plain, 

ideal hiding places from the most ancient 

of times. The most famous cave is Psychro 

or Diktaion Antron which contends with 

another grotto (that on Mount Ida in 

28

The Diktaion 

Antron of 

Psychro is 

believed to have 

been the 

birthplace of 

Zeus 

western Crete) the honour of being the 

birthplace of the Greeks on supreme god, 

Zeus. In Hesiod's Theogony we read that 

Cronus, king of the Titans and husband of his 

own sister Rhea, devoured his children 

(among whom Demeter, Hades, Poseidon, 

Hestia and Hera) because a prophecy had 

foretold that one of them would dethrone 

him. At the birth of Zeus, Rhea tricked 

Cronus, having him swallow a rock wrapped 

in swaddling bands in the place of the child, 

and immediately afterwards she escaped 

with the newborn into the grotto of Psychro. 

Fed on the honey of the bees and the milk of 

the goat Amalthea and defended by the 

warlike Kouretes who beat their shields hard 

to cover the sound of the infant's cries, Zeus 

was saved. Once grown, he killed his cruel 

father (not before having forced him to 

vomit up his siblings), taking on the role of 

chief divinity in the Greek pantheon. 

In 1900, to explore the immense cavern, 

as dark and humid as maternal placenta, 

filled with stalactites and stalagmites of the 

most varied forms and colours, the English 

archaeologist David Hogarth even had to 

use dynamite to make a route for himself 

through the narrow underground 

passageways: there he found idols, ceramics, 

cult objects, gold and ivory, seals and jewels, 

altars for sacrifices and a niche that was 

identified as the "crib of Zeus". 

For many centuries 

the grotto of 

Psychro was a place 

of worship, from 

the Middle Minoan 

period to Roman 

times, and rich 

votive offerings 

have been found by 

the archaeologists 

29


The Diktaion Antron was also a sacred site 

for King Minos of Knossos, who every nine 

years descended into the cavern to receive 

laws directly from Zeus. 

All around the plateau, amid low 

vegetation and scented bushes of broom 

and thyme there are to be found small 

villages, some inhabited, others abandoned, 

lying beneath the slope of the mountains 

like birds' nests. An excursion on the Dikti, 

starting from the village of Katofigi, leaves 

one breathless: lunar landscapes of silver 

rocks, isolated trees with majestic crowns 

and rough, stony outcrops alternate with 

steppe-like terrain and low 

vegetation from which 

sheepfolds spring up. At times 

one's way is barred by fencing 

and gates tied shut with knotted 

ropes to keep in the livestock: 

they can be opened on the 

condition that one is scrupulous 

in closing them again to prevent 

the animals from wandering. 

30

Karphi 

One particular attraction is an enormous 

rocky mass that rises above Lasithi to an 

altitude of 1,100 metres, visible from far off. 

The place came to be called Karphi (nail) for 

its strange cylindrical shape. Below the 

ragged peaks of the mountain there is 

hidden a Late Minoan settlement completely 

camouflaged amid the stone and inhabited 

from 1150 to 1000 B.C. by the last groups of 

Minoans - also known as Eteocretans (true 

Cretans) - in flight from the Dorian invaders. 

The city, which could hold up to 3500 

inhabitants, was regular in plan like Gournia, 

with the houses built one up against another 

Because of its 

particular shape, 

this mountain is 

called karphi, 

meaning nail 

and with steep streets and flights of steps 

among the rocky terracing. Explored 

between 1937 and 1939 by the 

archaeologist J. D. S. Pendlebury, the site has 

yielded numerous cult objects (female idols 

with raised arms, bull horns, bird heads, 

rhytons) which testify to the survival of 

Minoan culture and religion even after the 

fall of the palace kingdoms. 

The Eteocretan city 

was built on the 

slope of the giant 

"nail" 

31

CHAPTER 2 

THE AUSTERITY OF STONE 

AND THE SPLENDOURS OF MALIA

OLOUS 

SPINALONGA 

DREROS 

KARYDI 

FOURNI 

MONI ARETIOU 

MILATOS 

MALIA 

NEAPOLI


The austerity of stone and 

the splendours of Malia 

On Crete there are apparently-forgotten 

lands, ignored by the normal tourist guides, 

but which nevertheless possess a particular 

beauty, "quieter" and hard to define. One of 

these is the silent and almost uninhabited 

hinterland above Ayios Nikolaos, Neapoli 

and Malia, in complete contrast with the 

overcrowded beaches that stretch out in 

front of Spinalonga. Following this itinerary, 

it is a good idea to travel without a precise 

destination, losing oneself in the hilly 

landscape, among small, partly-abandoned 

villages, mills and tumble-down houses, 

monasteries and white churches. The very 

stones of this place recall dramatic and 

painful stories, stories of sieges and of 

conquests, of the battle against hunger and 

illnesses of a population in continual revolt 

against foreign invaders - Dorians, Romans, 

Saracens, Venetians and Turks. 

36

37


Spinalonga 

Linked to the mainland by a narrow 

isthmus, the Spinalonga peninsula 

extends as far as a small rocky islet, it too 

called Spinalonga. A natural harbour suitable 

for small boats, Spinalonga has been known 

since the time of the Minoans, and legend 

has it that Daedalus, the brilliant architect of 

Knossos, created for the inhabitants a very 

beautiful statue of Britomartis (the Cretan 

Artemis - protectress of hunters and 

fishermen). Documents from the fourth 

century B.C. attest to the existence of a city, 

Olous was a citystate 

in Classical 

Greek times and 

later became an 

important Christian 

cult centre. Of the 

Basilica there 

remains only the 

floor with its black 

and white mosaic 

decoration 

Olous, which controlled the maritime traffic 

of ships coming from Rhodes and Cyprus 

and which honoured herself in the fight 

against the pirates who infested that stretch 

of coast. In the ninth century Olous was 

occupied by the Saracens, but not long 

afterwards the entire city crumbled thanks 

to a terrible earthquake which was followed 

by the sinking of the isthmus. There are few 

traces of Olous still visible on the surface: 

most of the city was swallowed by the 

waters. On the partly-swampy terrain the 

foundations of an early Christian basilica of 

the seventh century with precious mosaic 

paving, with floral and geometric motifs, 

dolphins and inscriptions in Greek have 

been discovered. 

38

The history of the island of Spinalonga 

is equally dramatic, famous for the imposing 

Venetian fort which was erected in 1579 and 

considered unassailable because equipped 

with one of the most powerful batteries of 

cannon in all 

Crete. Not even 

the Turks could 

succeed in taking 

it. Only during the 

first half of the 

eighteenth 

century, by which 

time Venice had 

lost all authority over Crete, did the Turks 

take possession of the little island which 

then became a smugglers' haunt. In 1903, 

after Greece's liberation from foreign 

dominion, Spinalonga was transformed into 

a leper colony, and the bastions, the 

storerooms and the military barracks were 

occupied by hundreds of sufferers and their 

families until 1953 when the sanatorium was 

closed and the island with its imposing walls 

and towers became a tourist attraction. 

Climbing up the hills behind Elounda one 

has a magnificent view across the red roofs 

of the villages of Epano Elounda and Pines, 

across the olive trees and the low stone 

walls, as far as the bay with its peninsula and 

the little rock of Spinalonga. 

The island of 

Spinalonga was 

fortified by the 

Venetians in 1579 

and was handed 

over to the 

Ottomans only in 

1715 - the last of 

Venice's territories 

on Crete 

39


Stone as art 

Far from the 

beaches a 

completely 

different world 

appears with stony 

fields and old 

abandoned houses. 

After the seaside resort of Plaka 

we can abandon the beautiful 

beaches to search out the quiet of 

the hills, the villages and the great 

empty spaces where nature has reappropriated 

the land. Many people 

have abandoned living here, be it 

for poverty and hunger, be it for 

lack of natural resources or lack of 

work. Where once there grew 

immense fields of corn and where 

olive trees were cultivated with 

their small green fruit, to be 

savoured with a few drops of lemon 

juice and raki, now there often remain only 

stony outcrops and the outlines of 

windmills that have fallen in on themselves: 

they seem spectres, from the past, of a hard 

and laborious life, pierced by the lances of 

an invisible Cretan Don Quixote doing battle 

with time and nature. Great halo-like marks 

appear alongside the windmills, like magical 

circles from an archaic ritual; these are level 

circles of stone raised slightly higher than 

the surrounding terrain that served for the 

threshing of the grain with mules or oxen. 

Between Kato and Epano Loumas the 

mills are made of an ochre-coloured stone, 

with the remains of steps that follow the 

curve of the roofless circular buildings: 

40

the sail-arms are broken, the giant wheels 

are mute and the cogs rusty. Apart from the 

windmills there also survives the occasional 

old olive-mill, its huge rooms crowned with 

arches and the remains of antique 

machinery. Those restorations that have 

taken place regard only a few mills close to 

the areas frequented by tourists, while the 

others are all destined for slow destruction. 

In serried ranks like soldiers in arms, 

atop a hill there appear the mills of 

Marnelides near Lakonia, with traces of 

plaster and well-bolted doors because they 

are still used by the farmers as storerooms. 

Along the road between Petros and Dreros, 

two stone giants 

protrude among spiny 

thistles: they are 

monumental mills, fairly 

well-preserved, each 

with an external 

staircase, a doorway 

framed with white 

blocks of stone and a 

small window. The 

facade is convex, the 

stones are perfectly smooth and the overall 

aspect is one of robustness, but peering 

inside one notes only a pile of stones, iron 

and burnt wooden beams. 

Giant windmills are 

the silent guardians 

of this wild and 

archaic landscape 

41


Statues from the 

Roman era, when 

Dreros was still a 

living city, are 

conserved in the 

Museum of Neapoli 

Similarly, ancient Dreros, a Dorian city 

of the eighth century B.C. that survived into 

the Roman era, is nothing but a mass 

of stones and low walls dotted amidst thick 

vegetation. One arrives at the site of Dreros 

via a path between two hills in an 

atmospheric landscape, but it takes a lot 

of imagination to believe that here there 

once rose up an important archaic city with 

grand buildings, a vast agora and an 

important seventh-century B.C. temple 

dedicated to Apollo Delphinios, of whom 

a bronze effigy has been discovered 

together with two statues representing 

Artemis and Leto. 

Stone walls 

crossing the hills 

and small, fertile 

plains: signs of 

the farmers' toil 

Wandering 

among 

streets and 

paths traced 

out by grey 

stone walls 

that snake 

up and 

down the 

hills, one 

encounters 

numerous 

villages: the 

white 

Fourni full 

of flowers 

that seem to 

42

grow out of the very mortar of the houses, 

or Dories, also white, with its beautiful 

church of Ayios Konstatinos, and also 

Karydi which has the charm of an authentic 

rural village with beautiful stone walling to 

protect the vegetable gardens and the sown 

fields from the herds of livestock. 

The villages are 

white and full of 

flowers 

43


Not far from the main square of Karydi, 

climbing in the direction of the windmills, 

we find the ruins of the monastery of 

Chardemutsa, constructed like a fort in a 

perfect mixture of Venetian and traditional 

Cretan styles, with a great paved courtyard, 

a vestibule with pointed arches and large 

rooms containing old liturgical objects. 

The ruins of 

monasteries like 

Chardemutsa or 

Perambela testify 

to the religious 

devotion of the 

population, and 

the noble 

architecture 

continues to 

remind us of the 

richness of 

monastic life 

44

Many villages have 

been completely 

abandoned, like, for 

example, Hondrovolaki, 

which overlooks 

a gorge not far from 

Valtos: roofless houses, 

black doorways that 

look like toothless 

mouths, empty window 

casements like blind eyes and streets 

through which stray dogs run, are all that 

remains of a village which survives only in 

the memory of inhabitants who will never 

return. Just as no one will ever again inhabit 

the beautiful compound of a rural villa close 

by the village of Ayios Georgios: built of wellcut 

dry stone, with various rooms on several 

floors with arches, stone steps, oven and 

fireplaces and with a spectacular view of 

the coast, the house must have belonged 

to a fairly well-off family. The large grounds 

were terraced almost right down to the sea 

and almonds and olive trees still grow there 

from which no one gathers the fruit. From 

above one sees the ragged coastline with 

few isolated houses, the monastery of Ayios 

Andreas and the cave church of Ayios 

Antonios: it is a strange scenery of ochre, 

pink and black rocks, corroded by the wind 

and by the tides which render difficult both 

landing and embarkation. 

Some farm houses 

were very big and 

inhabited by large 

family clans. This 

kind of rural 

complex was 

entirely selfsufficient 

and could 

provide food, 

water, tools and 

clothes for 

everybody 

45

46 

C H A P T E R 2

Aretiou Monastery 

The religious heart of this little-frequented 

territory is the sixteenth-century Aretiou 

Monastery (or Monastery of the Holy 

Trinity) articulated in various buildings 

around an ample courtyard with the 

katholikon, the monks' church, which still 

contains some precious seventeenthcentury 

icons. The founder, Marcos 

Papadopoulos, gathered around him many 

of the famous artists and intellectuals of the 

period, and on his death in 1603 he left 

generous donations to the monastery asking 

that they be used to continue his charitable 

work for the poor, but also to support those 

artists of holy images who were worthy and 

talented, as was Kosmas Vartzagis, known as 

"the Master of Areti". Surrounded by high 

walls, the monastery defended itself well 

against the continual attacks by the 

Ottomans, and survived. Nowadays Aretiou 

Monastery is the most important monastic 

complex on the Gulf of Mirambelo and is the 

destination for many pilgrims and travellers 

in search of tranquillity and reflection. 

Aretiou 

Monastery 

is a fortified 

monastery and 

survived the 

Turkish occupation 

with no 

great damage 

47


The Cave of Milatos 

The grotto of 

Milatos is formed 

of a series of 

caverns and 

corridors stretching 

several miles 

Next page: 

Turning one's 

gaze towards the 

mountains, one 

notes a low hill 

with the white 

church of Ayios 

Elias: this was the 

peak sanctuary 

of Malia, in which 

the votive 

offerings to the 

gods were 

deposited 

Journeying towards the coast one arrives 

at the village of Milatos built not far from the 

ruins of the ancient Militos (or Miletus), 

already inhabited in the Late Minoan period 

and mentioned by Homer, Strabo and 

Pausanias. Myth tells that the local ruler, 

Pindareos, stole Zeus's favourite dog and 

gave it to Tantalus. For this impudence 

Pindareos and his wife were cruelly 

punished by the gods and condemned to 

death, while their daughters became slaves 

of the Furies. In the third century B.C. Miletus 

was destroyed by the inhabitants of 

Lyttos: only a few stones and some 

tombs carved out of the rock remain 

visible. 

Even more terrible is the story 

of the cave of Milatos, site of a 

ferocious massacre at the hands of 

the Ottomans. In the February of 

1823 around 3600 inhabitants of 

the area, men, women and children, 

rebels, priests and ordinary citizens, took 

refuge in the deep cavern of Milatos to 

escape the cruelties of General Hassan 

Pasha. Betrayed by a Turkish townsman, the 

cave was besieged for a long period and 

many died of hunger and thirst. Deceived by 

the Turks' false promise that in the case of 

surrender they would spare women and 

children, the men left the cavern, but to the 

cry of "death to the infidels" the massacre of 

the fugitives began. Every last one of them 

was killed. In a large space inside the grotto 

a catafalque has been laid out with 

commemorative stones and a small cave 

church dedicated to St. Thomas where each 

year the martyrs of Milatos are 

commemorated. 

48

49


Malia 

Golden bee 

pendant from 

the Chryssolakos 

cemetery at Malia 

Right on the border between the 

Prefectures of Lasithi and Heraklion the vast 

archaeological area of Malia stretches out, 

with its grand Minoan palace, second only 

to Knossos and Phaestos. Tradition has it 

that Malia was the residence of Sarpedon, 

the younger brother of Minos and 

Rhadamanthus, all born of the union of Zeus 

and Europa. 

Stone kernos for 

ritual offerings at 

the Palace of Malia 

The most ancient part of the palace 

dates back to the Middle Minoan period 

(circa 2000 B.C.) but of that era there remain 

few traces because the site was destroyed by 

a violent earthquake and completely rebuilt 

in around 1650 B.C.. Smaller than Knossos 

and Phaestos, but for this no less interesting 

in its structure and functions - religious, 

political and economic - the palace complex 

ceased to "live" in 1450 B.C. after a 

devastating fire. The site was discovered 

in 1915 by the Greek archaeologist Joseph 

Hadjidakis, while from the 1950s onwards 

the excavations have continued with the 

French Archaeological School of Athens 

under the direction of Henri van Effenterre. 

Opening off the great Central Court, 

with an altar set into the paving, there are 

a series of rooms essential to court life 

50

of the Minoans: the Throne Room with stairs 

that lead to the upper floor, the banqueting 

chamber and the crypt, a monumental 

stairway with beside it a kernos (a circular 

table with a central hollow and with 34 

smaller bowls along the edge for the ritual 

offering of the first fruits), the archive and 

a vast portico held up by columns alternated 

with pilasters which gave access to the great 

palace storerooms. 

Other courtyards and numerous 

corridors lead to the wing reserved for 

habitation, to the guest apartments and 

to the 

artisans' 

workshops. 

Almost all of 

the spaces are 

paved with 

the typical 

local stone, a 

bluish 

limestone, 

and a 

sandstone 

known as 

ammouda. 

The necropolis, also known as 

Chryssolakos ("the gold mine") for the great 

quantity of gold objects discovered in the 

tombs, is to be found down by the sea and 

is laid out like the palace of the living with 

rooms and porticos. The excavations at Malia 

have rendered up a vast quantity of splendid 

objects, jewels and ceramics dating from 

the First Palace period to the Second Palace 

period, among which are a sceptre in the 

form of a leopard, some very fine jewellery 

such as the pendant with two bees and 

a gold pommel from a sword-hilt embossed 

with the figure of a vaulting acrobat, 

preserved in the museums of Heraklion and 

Ayios Nikolaos. 

Directly beyond 

the entrance one 

can make out the 

huge circular 

storerooms, 

called kouloures, 

which held the 

reserves of grain 

for the 

population that 

inhabited the 

various quarters 

around the Palace 

51


Tales of Neapoli 

and surroundings 

The small Museum 

of Neapoli contains 

an important 

collection of statues 

from Classical and 

Roman times 

The fountain in 

Houmeriakos was 

built during the 

long Turkish 

occupation of 

Crete 

Travelling back towards Ayios Nikolaos 

and passing through a deep gorge crowned 

by the Monastery of Ayios Georgios Selinari, 

one arrives at Neapoli, a lively agricultural 

town beneath the mountain of Mavro Dasos 

which has a beautiful little museum with 

finds from the excavations of Dreros and 

statues from the Roman era. In 1340 at Kares, 

the oldest part of Neapoli, a certain Petros 

Philargi was born, a young man of great 

intelligence who was sent to study in Paris 

and in Oxford in order to follow a career in 

the priesthood. He became archbishop of 

Milan and then cardinal, and finally, at the 

time of the schism in the Western Church 

(which saw the curia of Rome in opposition 

to that of Avignon) Petrus Philatri was made 

Pope, taking the name of Alexander V: he 

held the position for only a year, from 1409 

to 1410 and died poisoned by his 

adversaries. 

A few kilometres from Neapoli, in the 

little village of Houmeriakos there remain 

some traces of Venetian influence, among 

which a little villa with 

an attractive ashlarwork 

doorway, which 

the Cretans call a 

Roman door. The town 

chronicles recount 

that in this house there 

once lived a Turk 

called Hussein who 

having fallen for the 

daughter of the local 

priest, kidnapped her with the intention of 

making her his lover. But at nightfall the 

maiden strangled the pasha, let herself 

down from the window disguised as a 

52

man, joined the 

rebels and fled to 

the plain of Lasithi. 

Her true identity 

was revealed when 

the swipe of a 

sword slashed 

open her clothes, 

but she continued 

to fight until her 

death. The 

monument 

commemorating 

this Cretan "Joan 

of Arc" is to be found at the entrance to the 

town of Kritsa. 

The so-called 

"Roman door" 

and white steps 

at Houmeriakos 

Again travelling on from Neapoli, 

climbing up in the direction of the Lasithi 

plateau, one can visit Kremaston 

Monastery, sited on a rocky ridge (hence its 

name which means "suspended"), which is 

inhabited by a community of monks. 

Founded in 1593 and built like a small fort, 

the monastery has been rebuilt several 

times, and in the twentieth century opened 

a school for children and ceded its 

agricultural lands to the Agricultural 

Commission which turned them into a 

model farm. 

The monastery 

of Kremaston was 

recently restored 

53

CHAPTER 3 

FROM COAST TO COAST 

THROUGH THE MOUNTAINS

IERAPETRA 

GOURNIA 

VASILIKI 

EPISKOPI 

KAVOUSI 

CHAMEZI 

ACHLADIA 

MOCHLOS 

PSIRA


Where nature is king 

Near Istron the 

waters of the gulf 

of Mirambelo are 

a deep turquoise 

in contrast with 

the grey rocks, 

the evergreen 

trees and the 

rock-plants in 

bloom 

Between Istron and Ierapetra the island 

of Crete narrows like a bottleneck and 

stretches a mere 16 kilometres between 

the gulf of Mirambelo and the Libyan sea. 

The trip will take us through the villages of 

the Thryptis and Orno mountains as far as 

the gates of Sitia. Here nature reigns, barely 

grazed by the hand of man: centuries-old 

olive trees, wild figs, shady plane trees, 

flower-filled fields, arid open spaces, deep 

gorges, small torrents and multicoloured 

rocks. 

58

59


From Gournia to Ierapetra 

Orthodox 

monasteries 

are always 

hidden 

away in silent 

places far from 

the crowds 

A short deviation from the main coastal 

road leads us towards the Monastery of 

Faneromeni, clinging to the mountain top. 

The road meanders amid bushes of thyme 

and sage as far as the little cave church of 

the monastery which houses a precious icon 

of the "Death of the Virgin", believed to have 

miraculous powers. Legend tells of a 

shepherd who had lost his way during the 

night, but was drawn to a light in the 

darkness: it came from the holy icon and, in 

thanks to the Virgin who had helped him 

find his way once more, the first church of 

Faneromeni was erected on the site. 

Gournia, the 

"Minoan Pompei" 

Back on the main road, the ancient city 

of Gournia appears, luminous, on a low hill, 

like a map open to the skies: one can clearly 

see the walls of the houses, the streets and 

the courtyards, so much so that it is known 

as the "Minoan Pompei". Already inhabited 

in the Early- and Middle-Minoan era, the 

ruins that we see today belong largely to the 

Late Minoan era (circa 1600 B.C.) and to the 

period of the arrival of the Mycenaeans who 

erected a sanctuary here. The inhabitants of 

Gournia were artisans, merchants and 

fishermen, but they too wanted to erect a 

palace and a theatre space of their own 

modelled on Knossos, naturally much 

inferior in scale. 

60

In the Middle 

Minoan period 

Gournia had its own 

local governor who 

resided in a palace 

high on the hill 

The several-floored houses and the 

shops, which face onto the lanes, the steps 

and around the marketplace, form a 

compact urban weave where the walls back 

one onto the other and often share roofs. 

The excavations between 1901 and 1904 by 

the American archaeologist 

Harriet Boyd-Hawes, have 

yielded up many brightlycoloured 

ceramics with 

marine motifs and various 

everyday objects like mortars, 

millstones and jars for oil and 

for wine. Continuing on 

towards Ierapetra one can see 

the remains of the Proto-Minoan settlement 

of Vasiliki, almost directly opposite the 

clean break made by the Ha gorge which 

looks as though it had been cut open 

At the foot of 

the Ha gorge 

archaeologists 

have discovered 

remains of an 

ancient settlement 

61


The inner walls 

of the houses 

of Vasiliki were 

originally 

plastered and 

painted red 

by a giant's sword. Vasiliki too, lying in the 

shade of wind-bent olive trees, retains the 

perfect outline of the city layout and is 

famous for the discovery of a great quantity 

of "flame-mottled" pottery with decorations 

in red and black, known as Vasiliki Ware. The 

corners of the small complex are orientated 

towards the four points of the compass, as 

was the practice in the constructions of Asia 

Minor: the settlement was destroyed. 

The town of Episkopi, midway along 

our route, has ancient origins as is testified 

by the sarcophagi found by pure chance 

whilst road works were being done near 

the double church of Ayios Georgios and 

Ayios Haralambos. The church dates back to 

the seventh or eighth century and is 

characterised by the double facades 

62

with one triangular pediment and one 

arched, and by an unusual brick dome with 

many niches that were once frescoed. 

Ierapetra, the ancient Hierapytna, 

is the largest port-town on the southern 

coast of Crete. It grew to be an important 

centre in the Graeco-Roman era when it was 

furnished with temples, baths, an 

amphitheatre and two theatres, porticos 

and an aqueduct, of which, however, there 

remains no trace. In the thirteenth century 

the Venetians built an imposing castle with 

battlements and ramparts. The Turks also 

embellished Ierapetra with mosques and 

fountains and there are corners of the city 

that retain a decidedly oriental aspect. 

The Venetian and 

Ottoman ruins are 

the most attractive 

monuments in 

Ierapetra, while 

nothing has 

survived from the 

Minoan, Greek or 

Roman periods 

On 26 th June 1798 the city had an 

illustrious guest in the person of Napoleon 

Bonaparte who, returning from the Egyptian 

campaign, spent a night here in a small 

house (now known as spiti tu Napoleonta or 

Napoleon’s House) not far from the church 

of Afendi Christou. 

Ierapetra has a fine Archaeological 

Museum with glass cabinets brimming with 

Minoan finds, ceramics, painted sarcophagi 

and statues dating from the Classical, 

Hellenistic and Roman eras. 

63

64 

C H A P T E R 3

Kavousi and the 

Thryptis and Orno mountains 

The road to Kavousi begins with a sea of 

dark olive trees. Here one can admire the 

oldest olive tree in Crete: how many years 

or centuries old it is no one knows, but its 

immense trunk, rough and scarred with 

hardened swellings like the body of a 

prehistoric animal, gives the impression 

that this tree/monument has seen more 

things than we humans are capable of 

imagining. Its branches were used to weave 

the crowns for the Athens Olympics in 2004. 

On the mountain that overlooks the 

village of Kavousi one can make out the 

foundations of two archaic settlements from 

the Early Bronze Age: a hilltop encampment 

and a settlement built around a rocky terrace 

with a view across the sea. Following the 

Dorian invasion the Eteocretans chose the 

sites on which to build their villages with 

care: fairly inaccessible, but with an ample 

vista that allowed them to control passing 

traffic without been seen. Hidden among 

luxuriant bushes of yellow-gold broom and 

wild sage there are numerous tholos tombs 

in which arms, jewellery and armour of the 

Geometric period have been found. 

The circular tombs 

of Kavousi are 

partly hidden by 

flowering bushes 

65


From ancient Kavousi one can continue 

along rough roads (to be braved in a fourwheel-drive) 

that wind through the 

Thryptis and Orno mountains. One has to 

be a lover of wild and archaic landscapes to 

appreciate this itinerary which takes us 

through bare mountains, passes hazardously 

above deep ravines and where the only 

signs of life are the birdsong and the 

bleating of the goats. Once up in the 

Thryptis mountains it is a good idea to make 

a excursion on foot as far as the Ha gorge 

among perfumed bushes and silvery rocks. 

The bare 

mountainside 

is the reign of 

sheep and 

goats 

The Orno mountains 

are formed of many 

rocky cones with dark, 

solitary trees, where 

the white road passes 

through a valley with 

isolated cultivated 

fields, figs, pome - 

granates and even 

vines which grow at a 

surprisingly high 

altitude. A single small 

village of just a few 

houses, Bembonas, 

offers the chance for 

66

The best way to 

discover the beauty 

of this countryside 

is by travelling 

slowly and 

whenever possible 

on foot 

a rest at the little kafeneion which is frequented 

by the farmers and shepherds of the area. 

Having arrived at Chryssopighi the road 

is asphalted once again: further ahead on the 

right one comes to the pretty village of Orino 

with its myrtle bushes and their white 

headily-perfumed flowers, while on the 

slopes of the Orno one arrives at Dafni and 

Skordillo amid great groves of olives. At that 

point a geological peculiarity has created 

bright white rocks of limestone and chalk that 

thrust up from the dark earth like sharp 

blades and calcified bones. In the fissures 

there grow anemones and cyclamens that 

bring to mind certain details, painted with 

brush-tip, in medieval miniatures. 

67


The stones of history 

Beyond the tiny hamlet of Riza there lies 

the village of Achladia and venturing along 

the little roads among olives groves, 

orchards and vineyards, one can go in search 

of a Minoan villa and a tholos tomb, wellhidden 

by the trees. The perfectly preserved 

tholos in all probability dates back to 1300 

B.C., to the Mycenaean period. A long 

dromos, a ramp faced with large dressed 

stones, runs down towards a doorway 

formed of great monolithic blocks which 

leads into a dark chamber roofed with a 

dome formed of horizontal courses of stone 

[corbelling]. The burial chamber has a false 

door which perhaps served to allow 

communication between the world of the 

dead and that of the living. 

The tholos 

tomb at 

Achladia is the 

best preserved 

in eastern Crete 

Rendered almost invisible by the olive 

grove that grows above it, the Minoan villa 

at Achladia is a large rural construction with 

various rooms built around an expansive 

courtyard with a kiln for producing ceramics. 

Of the villa there remain only the foundations, 

which do however give a good idea of how 

Minoan country life was organised. 

68

Decidedly more interesting is the 

ancient Minoan complex of Hamezi, dating 

back to 2000 B.C., which occupies the entire 

crest of a bare hill called Souvloti Mouri 

("pointed hill"). Built of a rosy stone, and in a 

strange elliptical form (the only one of its kind 

on Crete) it was long believed to be a peak 

sanctuary, 

but was more 

probably a 

rural villa 

housing 

several 

families who 

found 

themselves 

forced to 

adapt the 

shape of the 

house to that 

of the hillside 

terrain. The 

rooms are 

arranged in 

a circle around a deep cistern which served 

to collect rainwater because the hill has no 

springs or wells. 

The view from the 

top of the hill of 

Hamezi looks over 

large olive groves 

and vineyards right 

down to the sea's 

edge 

69


Nowadays the 

traditional 

handicrafts of 

Crete are to be 

found only in 

the Folklore 

Museum 

In the modern village of Hamezi there 

is an interesting Folklore Museum with 

traditional agricultural instruments and 

craftsmens' tools, costumes, furnishings and 

finely embroidered cloths shown in various 

rooms which recreate the atmosphere of 

a real peasant home of the past. 

Basket-shaped 

vase with 

double axes - 

the symbol of 

Minoan 

religion and 

power - from 

the island of 

Psira 

70

Psira and Mochlos 

Turning back onto the main road towards 

Ayios Nikolaon one meanders through the 

mountains as far as a panoramic 

promontory, after the village of Mirsini, from 

which there can be seen two small islands, 

Mochlos and Psira, and also a huge gypsum 

quarry which over time has taken on the 

appearance of a pyramid. 

It was once possible 

to reach the small 

island of Mochlos 

on foot, walking 

along the isthmus 

Mochlos emerges from the water for 

only 45 metres, and once formed part of the 

mainland, but during the Roman era the 

waves began to climb and submerged the 

isthmus. Mochlos is one of the most ancient 

settlements on Crete, and in its rock tombs, 

where the local rulers were buried, there 

have been found rich grave-goods: gold 

jewellery in filigree, silver cups, alabaster 

vases and objects in faience. 

Gold diadem from 

Early Minoan 

period, found at 

Mochlos 

71


The bold, dark 

profile of the 

rocky island of 

Psira 

The gypsum 

quarry once 

ruined the 

coastline but 

now seems part 

of the natural 

landscape 

Psira is larger and further from the 

coast and was inhabited from the time of 

the Minoans until the Byzantine era. It had 

an important port with the houses built 

amphitheatre-style around it and was well 

sheltered from the winds. Psira controlled 

the rich maritime trade between Crete and 

the East and the inhabitants must have been 

very wealthy merchants: their houses were 

frescoed and decorated with reliefs of very 

fine workmanship, worthy of a royal palace. 

72

73

CHAPTER 4 

ETEOCRETANS AND RELICS 

OF THE VENETIANS

SITIA 

PETRAS 

TRIPYTOS 

AYIA PHOTIA 

ZOU 

PRINIAS 

ETIA 

VOILA 

LITHINES 

MAKRYYIALOS 

KOUFONISSI


The Venetian castle 

of Sitia in an old 

engraving. Today 

the fortress, known 

as kazarma and 

which was 

destroyed by the 

Ottomans, has been 

partially restored. 

The Venetian 

influence in 

architecture and 

arts is still to be felt 

in many places 

around Sitia 

Starting out from Sitia (the city which has 

lent its name to the whole region, in that 

Lasithi is simply a distortion of the Venetian 

"La Sitia"), our journey takes us into the most 

hidden lands of the Eteocretans, the "true 

Cretans", who, after the destruction of the 

Minoan palaces, preserved the customs, the 

language and the religion of the Minoans for 

many centuries. Following the end of the 

ancient world it was, however, the Venetians 

who left a strong imprint on the region, and 

their traces can be found in the cities, the 

small villages and the ruins dotted about 

the territory. In a document of the era, the 

Venetians describe the population of Sitia 

as "peaceable and respectful of the laws 

and lovers of feasts". 

The Turkish presence was also strong, 

governing the region with an iron fist, and 

the occupiers were guilty of innumerable 

massacres many of which were the work of 

Khaireddin Barbarossa, a pirate in the pay 

of the Ottomans. 

78

79


Sitia from Minoan times 

to Venetian dominion 

Clear, light waters 

and a wide horizon 

characterize the 

bay of Sitia 

Like a white amphitheatre, Sitia hugs the 

bay with its port from which the ships that 

sail towards the islands of the Dodecanese 

leave. In ancient times the port was called 

Eteia and belonged to the city of Pressos 

(Praisos), a settlement on the hills inland that 

remained important from Minoan times to 

the Hellenistic period. 

Later the Romans were to occupy Sitia as 

an eastern Cretan outpost: the remains of 

a large fish tank date back to this period, 

whilst all traces of the earlier civilisations 

were destroyed by the continual incursions 

of pirates and by the numerous earthquakes 

that have plagued the area. 

80 

Before the ninth century an important 

diocese was founded in Sitia, to then be 

devastated shortly after by the Saracens. 

For this reason it was decided to transfer 

the bishopric to Episkopi, less exposed to 

raids and pillaging. On the Byzantine ruins 

the Genoese Enrico Pescatore built a fortress 

which the Venetians took possession of in 

1280, and which became, together with 

Hania, Rethymnon and Heraklion, one of 

Crete's most powerful strongholds.

The Venetian Castle 

overlooking the 

town of Sitia 

For many centuries Sitia remained one 

of the most important fiefs of the aristocratic 

families of the Venetian Republic. The 

fortress (commonly known as Kazarma) was 

destroyed along with the rest of the city in 

1538 by the pirate Khaireddin Barbarossa, 

but immediately rebuilt by the Venetians, 

although it was then captured by the Turks 

at the end of the eighteenth century. The 

signs left by the devastation that Barbarossa 

wreaked can still be seen in the little fireblackened 

church of the monastery of 

Faneromeni, few kilometres distant from 

Sitia, built above a gorge of white rock and 

visible from the sea, therefore easy prey for 

the foreign hordes who landed on the coast. 

In the period between the end of Venetian 

rule and the imminent occupation by the 

Turks, one of the island's most famous 

writers, Vincenzo Cornaro (or Vincente 

Kornaros), was born in Sitia, possibly of 

noble Venetian origins or a Cretan aristocrat 

who adopted an Italian name as was the 

A small hamlet 

was built near the 

monastery of 

Faneromeni 

81


Archaeological Museum 

of Sitia 

The Minoan 

"prince" in gold 

and ivory from 

Palaekastro is one 

of the most 

precious finds to 

have come out of 

eastern Crete 

The Museum's rich collection 

includes pottery, clay figurines, 

votive offerings, tablets with 

Minoan inscriptions, tools, 

jewellery and fragments of 

murals 

82

fashion at the time. His epic chivalric poem 

"Erotokritos" (he who is tormented by Eros) 

is composed of 1680 verses and tells, in 

flowery language, of the heroic battle 

between princes and warriors for the hand 

of the Princess Aretusa, who after terrible 

misadventures comes to marry the 

protagonist Erotokritos. The romance unites 

myth, legend, magic, passion, adventure, 

proverbs and folk wisdom and today the old 

folk still know the verses by heart, and sing 

them as they did in the past. 

With the Ottoman occupation the city 

fell into ruin until 1870, when an illuminated 

Turk, Avni Pasha, drew up the new city plan 

and had it rebuilt, in spite of the outbreaks 

of rebellion that hinted at the imminent 

demise of the Sultans' dominion. Following 

the liberation and independence of the 

island, Sitia was gradually repopulated and 

became the lively and beautiful town, 

oriental in character, with narrow streets, 

cafes, taverns and open-air markets, that it 

is today. One should not miss out on a visit 

to the Folklore Museum and above all the 

Archaeological Museum which houses 

important finds from the Minoan civilisation 

- including many votive 

offerings from the 

nearby peak 

sanctuaries and a 

splendid Minoan 

"prince" in gold and 

ivory found at 

Palaekastro, along with 

numerous daedalic 

figurines in the 

Egyptian style and 

objects from the Greek 

and Roman periods. 

This engraving 

from 1651 shows 

the town of Sitia at 

the time of the 

famous poet 

Vincenzo Cornaro, 

author of the epic 

"Erotokritos" 

Daedalic figurines 

were very common 

in Doric time 

83

A white-rock 

gorge leads to a 

stony beach and 

the monastery of 

Faneromeni, with 

its dark 

katholikon, the 

monks' Byzantine 

church with 

beautiful icons 

and frescocovered 

walls


Traces of the ancients 

around Sitia 

The double axe 

symbol is found 

engraved on 

stone and clay 

vessels 

wherever the 

Minoans 

founded a 

settlement 

An inscription on a Minoan tablet bears 

the word "se-to-i-ja", the most ancient name 

given to the city of Sitia, used right up to our 

own times. Its precise location is not known, 

but some scholars believe that it may have 

lain on the hill at Petras, where Minoan 

constructions with enormous blocks of 

dressed stone have been discovered. Petras 

is also cited by Plato in the Protagoras where 

he mentions it as the birthplace of Myson, 

one of the Seven Sages of ancient Greece. 

Other Minoan ruins have been found at the 

gates of Sitia, along the edge of the road 

that leads towards the Libyan sea: they are 

the remains of a Minoan villa dating from 

1600 B.C. with a series of rooms arranged 

across terraces, two well - preserved 

stairways and a crypt. 

Again near Sitia, to be found on a hill 

overlooking the sea is Tripytos, a large 

settlement with houses, workshops and 

storerooms built on the sandstone slope: 

86

Hellenistic-Roman period. Continuing along 

the road towards the east, after a few 

kilometres one comes to Ayia Photia, one 

of the largest 

Minoan 

necropolises 

on the island, 

with 252 

tombs, some 

cut into the 

rock, some in 

the form of 

tholoi. Next to the necropolis, on the crest of 

a low hill, a large fortified Minoan villa from 

the Middle Minoan period has been 

Sitia is surrounded 

by Minoan 

settlements, rural 

villas and 

cemeteries dating 

from the Middle 

Minoan period to 

the time when the 

Eteocretans took 

refuge in the 

mountain of 

eastern Crete 

uncovered with 37 rooms and two circular 

structures: even if the archaeological 

remains are little but outlines, the place has 

its own particular fascination, between the 

blue of the sea and rocks overrun with a 

blanket of succulents with bright purple 

flowers. 

87


The Minoans from war and work 

to religion 

On the road that leads from Sitia to 

Makryyialos along the coast of the Libyan 

Sea we come across a series of settlements 

and sanctuaries of the later generations of 

Minoans and Eteocretans who, amid these 

hills, sought refuge from the Dorian invaders 

in around 1000 B.C.. These sites enable us to 

better-understand three of the fundamental 

aspects of Minoan culture: country life, town 

life and the religious cults. 

Minoan country 

villas like that of 

Zou were very 

important in the 

Eteocretan period, 

since they provided 

the population's 

sustenance 

Near Zou, famous for its springs which 

provided fresh water for all of the 

surrounding area as far as Sitia, a rural villa 

has been discovered dating back to around 

1600 B.C., built of dressed stone on a very 

steep slope on a sandy and fragile terrain 

that threatens to crumble. The house is 

composed of various rooms, workshops and 

a kiln for ceramics, and a large number of 

tools and agricultural instruments have been 

found there. 

Travelling south one can make out a 

small sandstone ridge in the middle of a 

dense grove of olives: this is the Minoan 

88

Even very small 

settlements were 

built in the form of 

miniature royal 

palaces 

settlement of Ayios Georgios which, in its 

form and structure, is more like a miniature 

Gournia than a simple country house. The 

entrance is marked by a steep staircase 

formed of monolithic blocks which leads to 

a myriad of small chambers with the massive 

walls of a fortress. From the foot of the hill 

the green countryside stretches out 

immersed in absolute silence, and it is easy 

to believe that the ancients who inhabited 

this place loved to surround themselves 

with beauty. 

More imposing in appearance is 

Pressos (Praisos), a Late Minoan city which 

was active up until the Roman period, with 

a triple acropolis built on a cone-shaped hill 

entirely surrounded by fortified walls: from 

afar the hill seems built up in a spiral, like 

old representations of the tower of Babel. 

Pressos lies exactly halfway between the two 

coasts and was of strategic importance, 

allowing control over the traffic of people 

and goods across a vast territory. In the 

Greek era it was the most powerful city-state 

of eastern Crete, together with Itanos 

89


The dominion 

of the powerful 

Pressos 

extended over 

the whole 

region of Sitia, 

and a treaty 

was even made 

with the distant 

Itanos in order 

to avoid 

surrender to 

the rival city of 

Hierapytna 

Every Minoan 

settlement had its 

own mountain-top 

sanctuary: 

the sanctuary of 

Pressos lay on the 

peak of Prinias 

with which it was 

linked by friendship, 

and Hierapytna 

(Ierapetra), the 

eternal rival, 

especially as far as 

the lucrative trade in 

purple dye which was 

extracted from a 

particular species 

of mollusc which 

abounded in the 

coastal waters was 

concerned. 

Pressos venerated 

Zeus Dikteo and 

practiced a strange cult, that of the "sacred 

pig", as a result of which the populace was 

forbidden to eat pork. Governed by a 

democratic aristocracy, Pressos was an 

extremely wealthy city that minted coins 

with the effigies of Apollo, Hercules, Zeus 

and Demeter. In the buildings from the 

Greek/Hellenistic period, in the sanctuary 

and in the tombs, precious finds have been 

made: terracotta figures, painted lions, 

helmets, shields and pectorals in bronze and 

two Athenian amphorae of the sixth century 

B.C. which probably belonged to a local 

athlete who had won prizes at the 

Panathenian Games. 

When Ierapetra openly declared war on 

Pressos, the inhabitants turned for 

protection to the allied city of Itanos and 

also to Ptolemy Philimetor, ruler of Egypt 

90

with whom they had commercial dealings, 

but, despite their repeated appeals for help, 

in 146 B.C. Ierapetra succeeded in destroying 

the city. In decline and no longer 

independent, in 58 B.C. Pressos was 

occupied by the Romans who partially 

rebuilt the city. However it had, lost all its 

power. 

The Minoans and Eteocretans of these 

lands chose a "holy mountain" to take their 

votive offerings to the gods. The most 

imposing of these peak sanctuaries is found 

on the mountain of Prinias, which is very 

difficult to scale because defended by a very 

steep wall of jagged rocks on its western 

face and by a 

deep gorge on 

the east. In the 

past shepherds, 

farmers and 

townsfolk 

climbed as far as 

the summit 

carrying offerings 

of figurines and 

objects in 

terracotta, bronze 

and gold which 

were deposited in 

a sacred enclosure or hidden in the cracks 

between the rocks. 

The mountain-top sanctuaries were not 

always situated on the highest mountain 

peaks. Even low hills which were unusual in 

form or simply emerged from flat terrain 

could function as holy mountains for the 

population: for example the little mount 

Katrinia at Piskokephala, nowadays 

cultivated with olive groves and vineyards, 

and the low ridge of Alia, crowned with 

a small white church between Sykia and 

Papagianades, where many votive offerings 

have been found (now exhibited in the 

museums of Sitia and Ayios Nikolaos). 

At Prinias in 

particular there 

a large number of 

horned scarabs in 

clay have been 

found, the rinoceros 

orytes commonly 

known as 

"rhinoceros scarab" 

and believed, in the 

"household" cults, 

to be talismanic. 

91


The Venetian feudal 

territories 

As we wander among the roads that lead 

from Sitia to the Libyan sea, history moves 

forward in great bounds because in an area 

of only a few kilometres we find ourselves 

immersed in Minoan remains and then 

immediately afterwards in the feudal 

possessions of the Venetians. 

Kato Episkopi is the village to which, 

in the eleventh century, the bishopric of Sitia 

was transferred to escape the devastations 

wreaked by the Saracens. The three-naved 

church of the Ayioi Apostoloi with its cupola 

that recalls Islamic architecture, was noted 

by Venetian sources for a peculiarity: it had 

Under Venetian 

rule Kato and 

Epano Episkopi 

were seats of 

the Catholic 

bishopric, but in 

the churches 

both Orthodox 

and Catholic 

rites were 

celebrated 

two altars, one dedicated to the Latin rite 

and one to the Greek, and often the liturgies 

of the respective priests were celebrated 

simultaneously. Another beautiful old 

church, Panayia, is to be found at Epano 

Episkopi and is worth a visit. 

A small sign indicates the road to Forte 

castle, which is recognisable from far off 

thanks to its stern outline above a rocky spur 

rising up in front of the Orno mountain 

range. The road winds through cultivated 

fields and sweet-scented meadows with 

92

eautiful panoramas, as far as the ruins of 

the castle which was once property of the 

Genoese and later recovered by the 

Venetians who called it Monforte. Climbing 

to the crest one has a splendid view over the 

easternmost part of Crete as far as the 

Libyan sea. In the sixteenth century the 

fortress was abandoned and fell into ruin for 

lack of care. Later the site became a refuge 

for the peoples persecuted by the Ottomans 

and it is said that up to 3000 people could 

take shelter within its walls. 

To visit some of the most important 

lands of the noble families of Venice one 

must push on through narrow roads 

between vineyards and orchards in the 

direction of Ziros. One of the most 

fascinating sites is Etia, property of the 

powerful Venetian De Mezzo family, who 

built their residence here in the sixteenth 

century, a large palace, well-conserved and 

restored, with two churches alongside it, 

Ayia Ekaterina and Ayios Ioannis. Atop the 

main door is the family crest of two 

mermaids, while inside it opens onto a large 

hall with barrel-vaulting and a stairway 

which once led to the now non-existent 

upper floor. 

Castles, churches 

and palaces testify 

to the power of 

Venetian rule which 

lasted for over four 

centuries 

93

The palace at Etia 

with its two small 

churches has 

been carefully 

restored and is 

now listed as a 

national 

monument 

The mansion house at 

Etia is one of the most 

representative 

examples of Venetian 

architecture in 

eastern Crete. There 

was originally a 

second floor but the 

building fell in at the 

beginning of the 

nineteenth century

Continuing on towards Armeni and 

Handras (two agricultural villages famous 

for their wine and the production of 

sultanas, which are left to dry on great 

sheets stretched out in the sun), one arrives 

at Voila, another important Venetian feudal 

estate belonging to the Zeno family who, 

following the Turkish conquest, converted 

to Islam: their sons became fanatical 

janissaries, transforming the Italian surname 

into Tzin-Ali. Of the Venetian/Turkish village 

there remains the imposing tower of the 

palace/fortress with crests and relief 

sculptures carved on the entrances. 

The fertile valley 

near Armeni e 

Handras was once 

Venetian territory, 

but after the feud of 

Voila was ruled by a 

Turkish-Venetian 

janissary 

Alongside the palace we can see the 

ruins of the church of Ayios Panteleimonas 

and some stone houses with blackened 

ovens and fireplaces that attest to their 

sporadic use by shepherds and local farmers. 

Coming back down past scattered rocks and 

boulders, one arrives at a beautiful fountain 

in the Turkish style with an enclosed garden. 

Overhead is the church of Ayios Georgios 

which houses the tomb of the Cretan 

95


Salomons, the family which 

was to give Greece one of 

her famous theologians, 

Jacopo, and the poet 

Diorisi. 

Another village, 

Katelionas (which would 

be almost camouflaged 

among the rocks were it 

not for two white churches 

that shine in the sunlight) contains traces 

of the Venetian presence of the sixteenth 

century, when it was a large town with a 

population of thousands. The Ottomans 

forced the residents to convert to Islam or 

risk expulsion. Katelionas slowly emptied 

and was never repopulated. 

96

Returning towards Armeni, where on 

the crest of the hill the blades of a wind farm 

spin dizzyingly, on the plain below one can 

make out the ruins of the monastery of Ayia 

Sofia, of which there remain some Venetianera 

rooms surmounted by wide arches and 

blocks from columns and capitals. Used for 

a short time as a school during the Turkish 

occupation, but ever since with neither 

students nor vocation, the grey stone 

monastery has fallen into total abandon. 

Ruins and small 

churches are 

reminders of the 

past centuries, 

often troubled and 

rife with 

intolerance 

Lifting one's eyes up from the 

monastery to the high wall of rock that 

faces onto a narrow gorge, one can see two 

small cave churches dedicated to Ayio 

Pneuma. Both little churches are modest, 

dug into the rock, and their iconostases too 

are simple screens between the altar and the 

space reserved for the faithful, with a few 

icons of the saints, but it is worthwhile 

climbing up this far to sit on the stone 

benches and meditate, on the beauty of 

the nature here and of the sky amid the 

great silence. 

97


In the silent villages 

Time seems to stop 

in the archaic and 

unsullied landscape 

around Perivolakia 

To better understand the spirit of this 

region we would suggest a visit to the 

villages that tourism has forgotten, like 

Perivolakia and Drongari, set into a 

landscape both wild and sensual and 

approachable via a narrow path along the 

gorge that lies halfway down the slope 

beneath the little churches of Ayio Pneuma. 

Where the gorge ends one encounters a 

small plateau with thistles and thorny 

bushes amid farmhouses, all deserted, save 

one which appears to be inhabited by 

someone fairly eccentric who has decorated 

the house with odds and ends that vary from 

old pieces of iron to ox-horns and empty tin 

cans. The place is called Epano Perivolakia 

and was abandoned after a terrible 

earthquake. 

98 

Further down, settled among the olive 

trees, Kato Perivolakia appears, a group of 

low white houses with flat roofs and 

terracotta chimney pots. In Venetian times it 

was a rich agricultural village, but now the 

life in its streets seems to have stopped still 

and the few remaining inhabitants gaze

in wonder at the rare visitors who come this 

far. Yet more desolate is the old stone 

hamlet on a ridge at the beginning of the 

Perivolakia gorge, which descends between 

great boulders and open tree trunks towards 

Kapsa Monastery on the southern coast. The 

site has the rough beauty of a fortified 

village and it is with amazement that one 

notices that behind those impenetrable 

walls some homes have been rebuilt with 

tiny gardens in which there grow almonds 

and pomegranates. 

Continuing along a dirt road in the 

direction of Apidia one can visit the ruins 

of the medieval village of Drongari, which 

emerges amid hay fields and olive trees with 

its grey stones that once formed homes, 

shops, stables and storehouses. Over the last 

few years it has all but completely fallen in, 

Great silence and 

the scent of wild 

flowers are this 

spot's only riches 

but one can still make out arched doorways 

and rooms with stairs, niches and stone 

seats. On the platform that marks the 

entrance to the ruins, a bare white church 

has been erected with a wooden iconostasis 

with brightly-coloured paintings. 

99


Along the coast of 

the Libyan sea 

From outside the 

church seems 

rather poor, but 

inside it boasts 

surprisingly 

beautiful frescoes 

and holy icons 

Back on the main road leading to the sea, 

the white town of Lithines comes into view, 

and merits a stop: it is a lively and well-kept 

place with restored houses, flower-filled 

gardens and labyrinthine streets. The site 

was know as far back as pre-Hellenistic 

times, but acquired real importance only in 

the Byzantine and Venetian eras when it 

took the name of the aristocratic Lithini 

family who, in 1591, built the church of Ayios 

Athanasios in the town square. Here was 

buried the Venetian patrician Gerolamo 

Vlasto, fighter for the freedom of Crete and 

refined man of letters. Of the small castle 

which was once to be found in the middle 

of the village there remain only a few 

fragments of reliefs which are now 

incorporated into the church. 

100

101


The Venetian 

style of 

architecture 

and decoration 

continued to be 

adopted by 

local craftsmen 

even after 

Venetian rule 

ended 

Mysteriously dark, the church of 

Panayia Hodegetria ("the Virgin who shows 

the true path") is entirely frescoed. 

Blackened with smoke from the candles, it 

houses a precious icon of the Madonna from 

the fourteenth century: 

from the image there 

hang hundreds of silver 

ex votos - eyes, hands, 

feet, figures of men, 

women and children 

invoking mercy - held by 

fine chains so that they 

form a wide, tiered skirt 

of metal right down to 

the floor. 

The third church of Lithines is dedicated 

to the Ayia Triada and to Ayios Haralambos. 

It has two apses and dates back to 1886. Its 

beautiful portals with relief sculptures were 

probably salvaged from an older Venetian 

building. 

102 

After Lithines the road drops steeply 

towards the Libyan sea where we find the 

coastal village of Makryyialos with a small 

fishing port. Two ancient constructions have 

been found here, a Roman villa facing the 

sea and a Minoan villa on a flat area of land 

higher up, both hidden among the modern 

houses.

The Roman villa dates back to the first 

century A.D. and has a regular plan with a 

central courtyard surrounded by many 

rooms including small baths and a semicircular 

pool - possibly a fish pond. Judging 

from the precious pavement mosaics and 

the fragments of marble that decorated the 

walls, this was a luxury abode. 

The large Minoan villa belongs to the 

Second Palace period, it has a surrounding 

wall and is divided into numerous rooms 

with traces of cobbled flooring. The villa had 

strong links with the religious cults of the 

Minoans because inside there have been 

found stone altars, a chamber for ritual 

banquets and a magnificent seal on which 

there is inscribed a ship with a sanctuary 

floating on the waves, symbol of the sea 

gods. 

Turning instead towards the line of 

coast that leads eastwards, we encounter 

the fifteenth-century monastery of Kapsa, 

clinging to the high rocks and dedicated to 

St John the Baptist. In the mid 1800s the 

monastery became the property of the 

adventurer Yerontoyiannis, a decidedly 

controversial character: repenting of a life 

of dissolution he became a monk, dedicating 

himself to the poor, healing the sick and 

working miracles. Ever since Yerontoyiannis 

has been venerated as a saint and every 29 th 

August a great feast is dedicated to him at 

the monastery. 

The ancient 

settlements, villas 

and monasteries 

were rarely built on 

exposed stretches 

of coast because 

the population 

feared foreign 

invaders coming 

from the sea 

103


The island of Koufonissi: 

a very special outing 

Murex shells are 

still to be found 

on the sandy 

beaches of the 

island of 

Koufonissi 

In the summer when the sea is calm, a 

passenger ferry sets out from the port of 

Makryyialos for the uninhabited island of 

Koufonissi (the ancient Lefki). White 

beaches, crystalline, turquoise waters and 

ancient remains make this island an 

uncontaminated little paradise, and 

exploring it on foot leaves one feeling as free 

as the birds that wheel between its sea and 

the sky. Koufonissi has not always been so 

silent: in the Graeco-Roman period the 

island had a flourishing industry producing 

the red-purple dye that is extracted from the 

muscles of the murex shellfish that are to be 

caught in the surrounding sea, a dye which 

was sold on at great price. The inhabitants of 

Koufonissi had commercial dealings with the 

city states of Hierapytna, Itanos and Pressos 

and also with Athens and Rome where use 

of the colour purple was reserved for the 

clothing of the aristocracy. 

A twelve-tiered Roman theatre of the 

fourth century A.D., a temple dedicated to 

104

Zeus, an aqueduct and the remains of a 

Roman villa with columns of porphyry and 

mosaic floors all attest to the wealth of the 

past. Koufonissi was inhabited up until the 

Byzantine era, as is demonstrated by the 

walls beside the sea. Sailing around the 

island, one notes graffiti on the rocks 

representing sailing-ships, smaller boats and 

holy images: they were scratched there by 

the shipwrecked and by sailors and pirates 

whom the wind had driven onto the rocks. 

105

107

CHAPTER 5 

PLACES OF WORSHIP 

UNDER A VAST SKY

PEAK SANCTUARIES 

MONI TOPLOU 

ITANOS 

PALAEKASTRO 

KARYDI 

ZAKROS 

ETIA 

AMBELOS


Mountain-top sanctuaries 

In the easternmost part of Crete we find 

the traces of one of the most important and 

mysterious religious manifestations of the 

Minoan Civilization: the rites of worship that 

took place on the mountain peaks. The peak 

sanctuaries originated in the Middle 

Minoan period, around 2000 B.C., and 

remained functional up to the time of the 

Eteocretans. According to the Greek 

archaeologist Costis Davaras, in the area 

between Itanos and Goudouras alone there 

are concentrated a full nine sacred 

mountains, the best-known of which are 

Petsofas and Modi above Palaekastro, 

Traostalos and Vigla on the road to Zakros, 

Kalamaki near Itanos, and Prinias and 

Piskokephalo which are found just outside 

Sitia. 

110 

Our knowledge of 

Minoan religion is 

still very limited. 

The finds from 

peak-sanctuaries, 

caves, domestic 

shrines and tombs 

seem to indicate 

that the natural 

world played an 

important part in 

magical 

ceremonies 

The traveller notes nothing in 

particular, if not the mountain peaks with 

irregular rock formations which contrast 

with the surrounding landscape and catch 

the eye: a conical summit, jagged boulders, 

rings of rock or majestic ridges. Many of 

these sanctuaries did not even have a sacred 

enclosure (only on the mountain of Petsofas 

do the walls of a temenos remain), and for 

this reason scholars believe that the devout 

made their way to the mountain tops simply 

to pray close to the sky, where the gods

111


The peak 

sanctuary on 

Mount Petsofas 

is one of the few 

sacred sites 

with remains of 

a shrine 

A quantity of 

clay scarabs 

have been 

found at the 

peak sanctuary 

of Prinias 

could more easily manifest themselves. The 

mountain belonged to the gods, and to 

indicate the sacredness of the place was 

unnecessary. 

The Minoans brought precious 

offerings to the gods - objects in gold, ivory 

and bronze, or spontaneous gifts modelled 

in clay: domestic animals such as goats, 

oxen, bulls and sheep, but also birds, snakes, 

tortoises and insects and many figurines, 

both male and female, in the gesture of 

worship with both arms raised above the 

head or with a closed fist held to the 

forehead. They invoked the benevolence 

of the gods, for a good year, for an abundant 

harvest or for the healing of their physical 

ills: many feet, hands, arms, legs and little 

heads have been found in the crevasses 

between the rocks, along with miniature 

vases and objects of domestic and 

agricultural use. 

Votive 

offerings were 

hidden in 

fissures and 

cracks in the 

rocks 

112

Which deities were 

worshipped at the 

peak sanctuaries is 

still unknown, but 

sacred figures - 

especially female - 

are often 

identifiable 

engraved on seals 

or painted on 

pottery and clay 

sarcophagi 

For the Minoans nature was sacred and 

had no need of manipulation. Many plant 

symbols appear on their seals and in their 

painting: olive trees, fig trees, palms, oaks, 

pillars 

crowned with 

treetops, 

flowers, fruit 

and scattered 

leaves, and 

water was 

present too: 

the waves of 

the sea on 

which there 

sailed the 

boats with 

their sacrificial 

altars. 

Many of the 

discoveries made relating to these peak 

sanctuaries are owed to the French scholar, 

and tireless traveller, Paul Faure who, in the 

mid twentieth century scoured the 

mountains and grottos of Crete on foot in 

search of the traces of the civilian and 

religious life of the Minoans. Many 

archaeologists have used Faure's travel 

notes and books as the basis of in-depth 

studies of the sites that he indicated. 

Figurines in the 

shape of bulls were 

a symbol of 

strength, 

independence and 

fertility 

The reconstruction 

of the peak 

sanctuary of 

Petsofas 

includes a fairly 

large temenos 

built into the 

rocks 

113

At the Museum of 

Ayios Nikolaos all 

sorts of votive 

offerings from the 

peak sanctuaries 

are on show: small 

clay animals, 

pottery, and legs 

and arms, used to 

ask the gods for 

good health or a 

rich harvest 

The small clay 

figurines - both 

male and female - 

are in the typical 

worshiping pose 

of the Minoans

Archaeologists 

have also found 

bronze figurines 

and animals and 

objects in gold. 

The peak 

sanctuaries first 

appear in the 

Middle Minoan 

period and some 

remained in use up 

until the Late 

Minoan period 

The female 

figurines have 

elaborate 

hairstyles and 

wide skirts, while 

the male figures 

wear only the 

sacred knot and 

a dagger


Travelling towards the 

“deserted city” 

From Sitia the road continues along the 

coast towards the easternmost point of 

Crete in a harsh, bare landscape, its few trees 

bent by the wind which blows angrily here. 

In the midst of this wild nature there rises 

the fortress-like monastery of Toplou, which 

takes its name from the Turkish word top, 

cannon, because the Venetians had 

equipped the complex with a powerful 

artillery. Dedicated to the Panayia Akrotiriani 

("the Virgin of the ridge"), the monastery was 

founded in the fourteenth century by the 

noble Venetian Cornaro family, but thanks 

to armed conflicts and earthquakes, Toplou 

Monastery has been damaged and rebuilt 

many times. 

Toplou 

Monastery is one 

of the most 

important 

monasteries on 

Crete, erected in 

the middle of a 

fertile plateau 

halfway to 

Palaekastro. In 

the past the 

monastery held 

land from Capo 

Sideros all the 

way to the south 

coast - mainly 

received as gifts 

from the rich and 

devoted families 

of Sitia 

116

Inside the monastery the monks have 

organised an interesting museum with 

antique engravings, illuminated 

manuscripts, historical documents and holy 

icons, an outstanding example of which is 

the work painted by the eighteenth-century 

artist Ioannis Kornaros when he was only 

twenty-five years old. The icon is inspired by 

the psalm "Lord, thou art great", and 

represents 61 biblical scenes (in particular, 

the creation) with hundreds of figures in the 

style of the miniaturists. 

The monastery's 

museum has a rich 

collection of 

ancient documents 

and icons: the most 

famous is the 

painting by Ioannis 

Kornaros 

The monastery of Toplou also possesses 

a precious stone tablet with Greek 

inscriptions dating from 146 B.C., this is the 

treaty between the city states of Itanos and 

Hierapytna concerning the ownership of 

and trading rights regarding the purple dye 

that was produced on the island of 

Koufonissi. The arbitrator in this dispute was 

the governor of the Roman city of Magnesia 

in Asia Minor where an identical copy of the 

ancient treaty has been found. The 

inscription was discovered in 1834 at Itanos 

by the British diplomat and traveller Robert 

Pashley, who brought it to Toplou where it 

was reused as an altar table and later walled 

into the facade of the chapel. 

The inscription on 

the stone tablet 

tells of the treaty 

made between the 

city states of Itanos 

and Hierapytna in 

the year 146 B.C. 

117

118 

C H A P T E R 5

The landscape appears increasingly 

parched and desolate as we continue along 

the road towards the bay of Grandes, 

passing semi-abandoned farmhouses, great 

swathes of shrubs toughened by the sun 

and the sea salt, enclosed pastures for the 

herds of long-haired goats, and fields 

cultivated with melons, grapes and bananas 

which belong to the monastic community 

of Toplou. On a promontory overhanging 

the sea one can make out the ruins of 

ancient Itanos, later called Erimoupolis, 

the deserted city. Legend tells that 

Itanos belonged to the Kouretes, the young 

warriors who danced and beat their arms 

hard on their shields to cover the noise of 

the whimpering baby Zeus, born in the 

grotto of Mount Dikti (or perhaps on Mount 

Ida). 

The ruins of 

Itanos - later 

called 

Erimoupolis, the 

deserted city - 

are spread wide 

over the coastal 

area, with traces 

of Minoan, 

Hellenistic and 

Roman 

constructions 

and also early 

Christian 

remains 

Inhabited by the Minoans and later 

becoming a Phoenician trading post, Itanos 

was considered one of the most powerful 

city states of the Graeco-Roman era, it held 

the right to mint coins and controlled the 

maritime trade between the Orient, Egypt 

and the Mediterranean. The only dangerous 

rival was Hierapytna which had 

demonstrated its bellicose intentions in 

destroying the city-state of Pressos, ally of 

Itanos. The relationship with Egypt was so 

strong that in the third century B.C. the 

119


The Christian 

basilica has 

fallen into ruin, 

but contains the 

columns of the 

central nave, 

salvaged from 

Roman and 

Greek buildings 

populace could request the help of Ptolemy 

Philadelphos to bring down the aristocratic 

government that oppressed them. 

In the ninth century the city, already badly 

damaged by an 

earthquake, was razed to 

the ground by pirates and, 

after some attempts at 

rebuilding it, was 

definitively abandoned in 

the fifteenth century, 

becoming the "deserted 

city". At Itanos we can see 

the ruins of each of the 

city's periods of glory - the 

walls of the Greek houses, 

the Hellenistic fortifications, the Roman 

storerooms dug into the rock, the necropolis 

and the remains of a three-naved early 

Christian basilica constructed with materials 

salvaged from the older buildings. 

A stone's throw from Itanos, the famous 

sandy beach of Vai stretches out in the 

shade of a vast palm grove. Legend has it 

that it was the Saracens who brought the 

palm to this area: pitching their tents near 

the shoreline and living off dates, the dense 

palm grove is thought to have grown from 

the date-pits that they dropped there. 

120

121


Palaekastro and the 

mountain villages 

Overlooking a 

natural harbour 

near the bay of 

Kouremenos, in 

the Middle 

Minoan period 

there flourished 

a town today 

called 

Roussolakos - the 

red hole - 

because of the 

area's purple soil 

122 

The immense arc of the bay of 

Kouremenos (where nowadays the 

students of a windsurfing school whisk past) 

was inhabited by an important Minoan 

community right from the dawn of that 

civilization. Among the olive groves of 

Palaekastro, in the area known as 

Roussolakos at the foot of Mount Petsofas 

(which watched over one of the most 

frequented peak sanctuaries of ancient 

times) a vast rosy-stoned Minoan settlement 

has been 

brought 

back to 

light. The 

real name 

of this city 

is not 

known, but 

we do 

know that later on the Greeks were to call it 

Heleia for its marshy terrain. Rectangular in 

plan with paved streets, steps and a dense 

weave of houses built one up against the 

other to form small districts, the city enjoyed 

great prestige in the Middle Minoan period. 

Following the natural disaster of around 

1450 B.C. which destroyed all the palaces 

and cities of Crete, Palaekastro also

crumbled and the few survivors withdrew 

to the promontory of Kastri overlooking 

the bay. 

The city came to life again during the 

Late Minoan period, and was still inhabited 

in the Greek era when a great sanctuary 

dedicated to Zeus was erected at some time 

during the eighth to sixth centuries B.C. 

When the archaeologists of the British school 

in Athens arrived, the temple appeared to 

have been completely demolished, and yet 

among its ruins it concealed some important 

archaeological remains including a frieze 

representing a chariot, and a terracotta lion, 

The peak 

sanctuaries of 

Petsofas and Modi, 

with their stark 

conical profiles, 

were sacred to the 

ancient population 

of Palaekastro and 

were places of 

worship up until 

the Roman period 

Every afternoon 

the fishing boats 

leave the small 

harbour of 

Palaekastro 

but above all here there was discovered a 

stele carved with the famous "Hymn to Zeus 

Kouros", to Zeus the youth, the perfect image 

of the idealized hero, sung by the Kouretes 

and by the men who worshipped the "divine 

Zeus, native of Crete". 

123

124 

C H A P T E R 5

Turning right just before the entrance 

to the modern village of Palaekastro, one 

can follow a dirt road which leads right to the 

base of the sacred mountain of Modi, the 

conical outline of which stands out against 

the sky from a long way off. To reach the 

summit, where the Minoans worshipped the 

gods of nature, and from which one enjoys 

a magnificent view over the whole of the 

eastern coast, one must pick one's way 

through rocks and brushwood, ideally 

following the winding goat tracks. 

From the sacred 

mountain of Modi a 

dirt track leads to 

small villages now 

partly abandoned, 

but with 

interesting 

traditional houses 

The route continues past a forest 

formed by the mills of a wind-farm and 

groups of houses with modest gardens that 

are swept by the perennial winds, as far as 

Mitato and Vrysidi, two tiny hamlets with 

few inhabitants. The soil takes on a rosy hue 

as the path reaches Karydi with its low, 

125


A deep, dark 

hole marks the 

entrance to the 

large grotto of 

Peristeria 

situated 

between Karydi 

and Adravasti 

square houses (most of which are no longer 

inhabited) with doors and windows that bang 

with every gust of the wind - the only master 

in this ancient village. In the bare hills 

surrounding Karydi the deep grotto of 

Peristeria is to be found, opening its 

immense 

crater-like 

mouth 

amid the 

thistles. At 

this point 

the 

landscape 

becomes 

almost 

lunar, 

among 

pointed rocks that take on the form of 

animals or little stone monsters curled up 

between the bushes: venturing on foot over 

the uneven terrain, clambering over the 

ridges of the hills and looking down towards 

the dark precipices, the silence of this land 

becomes almost unbearable. 

The white 

village of 

Sitanos 

126

Turning back towards Karydi and 

following the road to Ziros, the snow-white 

village of Sitanos awaits us, built on the 

slope of hill with labyrinthine alleyways and 

flat roofs on which onions, figs and pulses 

are laid out to dry in the sun. Underground 

watercourses have rendered this strip of land 

more fertile and the landscape is softer here 

among vast fields, vineyards and isolated 

cypresses. 

The area around 

Sitanos and 

Armeni is 

famous for its 

grapes and good 

wine 

127


Zakros and the Valley 

of the Dead 

From the top of 

the sacred peak 

of Traostalos 

you can see the 

grottoes that 

mark the 

entrance to the 

Hochlakies 

gorge 

As one leaves the village of Palaekastro a 

sign indicates the road for Zakros, one of the 

great Minoan palaces of Crete. The land 

between the two mountain chains that flank 

the valley is fertile and is cultivated by the 

farmers who live in the small traditional 

villages of the area. Just past the houses of 

Hochlakies a narrow gorge begins: the way 

is almost blocked by 

gigantic boulders 

and a dense 

vegetation, but at 

the end it opens 

suddenly onto a 

great marshy 

meadow with beds 

of reeds which are 

used for making 

matting and baskets. 

Further on, a lonely 

beach of round 

pebbles stretches 

128

out before an eternally calm sea sheltered 

by the cliffs on either side. 

Behind a little cemetery with a small 

white church that is level with the village of 

Azokeramos, the climb towards the Minoan 

peak sanctuary of Traostalos begins. The 

path of pink soil contrasts with the dark 

green bushes of thyme and sage, with their 

scented flowers that feed the bees whose 

honey has an intense and aromatic flavour. 

At the summit a group of lighter-coloured 

rocks marks out a natural sacred enclosure, 

and the terrain is scattered with tiny 

fragments of terracotta, chippings from the 

votive offerings of the Minoans. 

Once past the modern village of Zakros, 

a small clearing marks the beginning of the 

descent towards a deep gorge that runs out 

into the creek of Kato Zakros where 

the Minoan palace lies. Following 

the twisted path of the gorge past 

stones, pools of water and oleander 

bushes, on the rock walls one notes 

numerous caves cut into the stone: 

these are Minoan graves, rock 

tombs that have given the gorge 

its name of "Valley of Death". 

129


The gorge known 

as the Valley of 

Death descends 

from the stoney 

heights of Kato 

Zakros as far as the 

Minoan palace by 

the sea 

The asphalted road 

drops rapidly down towards 

the bay of Kato Zakros, with 

fishing boats at anchor along 

the shore and a row of 

taverns that offer fresh fish. 

The ancient palace of Zakros, 

with its city that extends 

across terracing on the hill 

above, dates back to the 

Second Palace period from 

1600 to 1500 B.C. and was 

discovered by chance in 1901 

by the British archaeologist 

David Hogarth, while intense 

excavation was begun in 

1962 by Nikolaos Platon. 

Zakros's ancient masters lived 

opulently thanks to the 

flourishing maritime trade 

that arrived from Egypt, Syria, Cyprus and 

Asia Minor. Even though it was the smallest 

of Crete's four Minoan palaces, the Zakros 

residence had around 200 rooms, with 

banqueting halls, purificatory baths, shrines, 

130

the treasury, the megaron of the king and 

the megaron of the queen, and an immense 

archive-room in which hundreds of tablets 

inscribed with the Linear A script were found, 

still preserved in their boxes. In the various 

rooms more than two-hundred vases were 

discovered including real masterpieces 

such as a rhyton in rock crystal, as well as 

innumerable objects in bronze (axes, swords, 

knives, hammers and various forms of vessel), 

a very beautiful bull's head and many objects 

in ivory, faience and gold. 

The Minoan 

palace and town 

of Zakros 

possessed one 

of Crete's most 

important 

harbours and 

became the 

main gateway 

for trade with 

the Orient 

131


The coast of the wild lilies 

The rough and 

stony land of 

easternmost Crete 

is still untouched 

by the modern 

construction 

industry and mass 

tourism 

Just after the village of Zakros, a turning 

beside the roadside remains of a Minoan 

country villa indicates the way to 

Xerokampos on the coast of the Libyan sea. 

Amid olive groves, winding gorges and high 

mountains, at last the coast comes into view, 

little-inhabited and with wide beaches of 

sand and pebbles. Immediately to the right 

just before arriving at the village of 

Xerokampos, one finds a small sandy bay 

with emerald-green water and one of the 

most beautiful beaches on Crete: right up to 

the water's edge there grow snow-white lilies 

and rare succulents that come into flower 

under the baking midsummer sun. 

132

Following the shoreline, one notes 

a solitary small, white church built over 

an ancient Minoan settlement called 

Ambelos. Reoccupied in the Hellenistic 

period, it was later conquered by the 

Romans. The cut of the stones has nothing 

of the monumental to it, but it is nonetheless 

interesting to observe the remains of the 

ancient site which probably belonged to 

the kings of Zakros. Ambelos had a peak 

sanctuary of its own on the promontory that 

looks out over the two little islands in the 

middle of the sea known as Kavali. 

The coast near 

Ambelos gives a 

good idea of what 

the island must 

have been like in 

ancient times 

Leaving 

Ambelos 

behind us, 

the landscape 

becomes everwilder 

and 

more arid 

while the sea 

glitters in the 

sunlight, inviting one to take continual dips 

in its refreshing waters. We would 

recommend a walk up to the far promontory 

of Xerokampos which offers a magnificent 

view over the entire coast as far as Koufonissi. 

In one wall of rock the wind and the saltwater 

have carved a giant face with a wide-open 

mouth: it could easily be the face of the 

gorgon Medusa, 

The sea cliffs have 

been eroded by 

water, wind and 

salt which have 

sculpted strange 

images into the 

rock 

133


sculpted by nature, ready to defend the 

island. Nothing could be better than the 

dizzying climb along the snaking road that 

leads towards the few houses of the 

traditional hamlet of Hametoulo and, 

eventually, to Ziros, with its breathtaking 

panorama, for taking our leave of eastern 

Crete; wild, mysterious, secretive, austere 

and at the 

same time 

warm and 

hospitable, 

rich in 

magnificent 

monuments 

and jealous 

of her many 

hidden 

beauties. 

134

135

137

140

Chronology 

7000 B.C. Stone Age, arrival of the first settlers 

6500-2800 B.C. Neolithic Age and the beginning of the 

Bronze Age 

2800-2100 B.C. Arrival of the Minoans, pre-Palace period 

2100-2000 B.C. Beginning of the First Palace period 

2000-1700 B.C. Palace civilization, construction of the First 

Palaces 

1700 B.C. Destruction of the First Palaces by an 

earthquake 

1650-1500 B.C. Construction of the Second Palaces, 

Second Palace period 

1500-1450 B.C. Eruption of the volcano Thera and destruction 

of the Second Palaces 

1450-1200 B.C. Beginning of the post-Palace period, 

arrival of the Mycenaeans 

1200-1100 B.C. Beginning of the Iron Age 

1100-900 B.C. Invasion of the Dorians 

900-69 B.C. Geometric, Archaic, Classical and Hellenistic 

periods. Creation of the city states, extensive 

trade with the Near East and Egypt. 

69 B.C.-330 A.D. Roman conquest and the beginning 

of the Early Christian period 

330-830 A.D. First Byzantine period 

830-961 A.D. Invasion of the Arabs 

961-1204 A.D. Second Byzantine period 

1204-1669 A.D. Venetian dominion and the first stirrings 

of Cretan resistance 

1669-1898 A.D. Turkish occupation and very active 

Cretan resistance 

1898-1912 A.D. Liberation from Turkish occupation and 

creation of the Autonomous Cretan State 

under the protection of the European powers 

1913 A.D. Official union of Crete with Greece 

141

Glossary 

Acropolis - 

Ashlar-work - 

Ayios -Ayia 

Eteocretan - 

Dromos - 

Hestiatorion - 

Iconostasis - 

Kafeneion - 

Kastro - 

Katholikon - 

Kernos - 

Janissaries - 

Megaron - 

Mitate - 

Paleos - 

Panayia - 

ancient citadel 

square-hewn stone masonry or facing 

‘saint’ or ‘holy’ 

'true Cretan', the last of the Minoan peoples 

in eastern Crete 

'street', the unroofed passage leading 

into a tholos tomb 

banqueting chamber in ancient buildings 

screen between the altar and the nave 

of the (Orthodox) church 

coffeehouse 

castle or fortified area 

church or chapel within a monastery 

vessel used for religious rituals 

young Ottoman soldiers, guards selected 

from Christian families and forced to 

convert to Islam 

the great hall of Minoan and Mycenaean 

palaces 

small stone house 

'old' 

the Virgin Mary 

Peak sanctuary - ancient mountain-top shrine 

Pithos - large storage jar 

Polis - 

town 

Prytaneion - council chamber 

Raki - 

strong alcoholic drink produced on Crete 

Rhyton - drinking horn, often in the form of an 

animal-head 

Spiti - 

house 

Temenos - sacred precinct 

Tholos - conical or beehive-shaped tomb 

142

TEXT 

JUDITH LANGE 

PHOTOGRAPHS 

JUDITH LANGE - MARIA STEFOSSI 

DESIGN - LAYOUT 

MARIA STEFOSSI 

ENGLISH TRANSLATION 

JULIA MACGIBBON 

PROOFREADING 

JOHN O’ SHEA 

COLOR SEPARATION - PRINTING - BINDING 

BIBLIOSYNERGATIKI S.A. 

The authors 

Judith Lange is a journalist, photographer and painter, 

Maria Stefossi is a photographer, graphic artist and editor. 

Both are great travellers. They have published numerous books together, 

among the most recent of which are: Ancient Theatres, Ancient Stadia, Crete, 

Mani, Drama and Humble Beauty. 

143

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