Discover The Unknown 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.

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.

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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.

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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.

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CANDIA PARK VILLAGE

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. 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.

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.

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CHAPTER 1

SACRED AND PROFANE IN THE SHADOW OF MOUNT DIKTI

AYIOS NIKOLAOS KRITSA PANAYIA Y KERA LATO KATHARO LASSITHI KARPHI

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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

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Ia thalfis hard to imagine that a century and 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

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

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ARCHAEOLOGICAL MUSEUM OF AYIOS NIKOLAOS

A medieval archer from the region of Sfakia: during the nineteenth century many sfakiotes arrived in Ayios Nikolaos

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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.

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.

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Kritsa and Panayia y Kera

Among the narrow alleyways of Kritsa

K ritsa 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

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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-

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

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Lato Lato, once an important Dorian city-state, amidst a beautiful mountainous landscape

A s everywhere in Greece, on Crete the sacred and the profane live side-by-side, and

These small daedalic figurines are typical of the Doric style of sculpture that flourished during the eighth and seventh centuries B.C.

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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

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

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The Katharo Plateau

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ess 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

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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

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

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Every season has its own colours at the Kataharo plateau: green fields in springtime, yellow earth in summer

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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!

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

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The Lasithi Plateau

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" ituated 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

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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.

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The grotto of Trapeza was a site of cult activity up to the Early Minoan period

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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

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Karphi

O ne 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 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.

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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"

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CHAPTER 2

THE AUSTERITY OF STONE AND THE SPLENDOURS OF MALIA

OLOUS SPINALONGA DREROS KARYDI FOURNI MONI ARETIOU MILATOS MALIA NEAPOLI

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The austerity of stone and the splendours of Malia

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n 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.

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Spinalonga

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inked 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

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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.

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

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Stone as art

A fter the seaside resort of Plaka we can abandon the beautiful

Far from the beaches a completely different world appears with stony fields and old abandoned houses.

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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:

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

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Statues from the Roman era, when Dreros was still a living city, are conserved in the Museum of Neapoli

Stone walls crossing the hills and small, fertile plains: signs of the farmers' toil

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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.

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

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

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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 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

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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

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Aretiou Monastery

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he 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.

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Aretiou Monastery is a fortified monastery and survived the Turkish occupation with no great damage

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The Cave of Milatos

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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

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ourneying 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. 49

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Malia

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Golden bee pendant from the Chryssolakos cemetery at Malia

Stone kernos for ritual offerings at the Palace of Malia

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ight 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.

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

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

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Tales of Neapoli and surroundings

Tandravelling back towards Ayios Nikolaos passing through a deep gorge crowned

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 52

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

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.

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 so-called "Roman door" and white steps at Houmeriakos

The monastery of Kremaston was recently restored

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CHAPTER 3

FROM COAST TO COAST THROUGH THE MOUNTAINS

IERAPETRA GOURNIA VASILIKI EPISKOPI KAVOUSI CHAMEZI ACHLADIA MOCHLOS PSIRA

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Where nature is king

B etween Istron and Ierapetra the island of Crete narrows like a bottleneck and 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

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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.

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From Gournia to Ierapetra

A short deviation from the main coastal road leads us towards the Monastery of

Orthodox monasteries are always hidden away in silent places far from the crowds

Gournia, the "Minoan Pompei"

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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.

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.

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

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The inner walls of the houses of Vasiliki were originally plastered and painted red

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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

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 26th 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.

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Kavousi and the Thryptis and Orno mountains

Tdarkheolive road to Kavousi begins with a sea of 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.

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The circular tombs of Kavousi are partly hidden by flowering bushes

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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 best way to discover the beauty of this countryside is by travelling slowly and whenever possible on foot

The bare mountainside is the reign of sheep and goats

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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

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.

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The stones of history

B eyond 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

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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.

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

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Psira and Mochlos

TAyiosurning back onto the main road towards Nikolaon one meanders through the Nowadays the traditional handicrafts of Crete are to be found only in the Folklore Museum

Basket-shaped vase with double axes the symbol of Minoan religion and power - from the island of Psira

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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.

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.

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.

It was once possible to reach the small island of Mochlos on foot, walking along the isthmus

Gold diadem from Early Minoan period, found at Mochlos

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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

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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.

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CHAPTER 4

ETEOCRETANS AND RELICS OF THE VENETIANS

SITIA PETRAS TRIPYTOS AYIA PHOTIA ZOU PRINIAS ETIA VOILA LITHINES MAKRYYIALOS KOUFONISSI

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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

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Slenttarting out from Sitia (the city which has 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.

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Sitia from Minoan times to Venetian dominion The Venetian Castle overlooking the town of Sitia

Like a white amphitheatre, Sitia hugs the bay with its port from which the ships that

Clear, light waters and a wide horizon characterize the bay of Sitia

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.

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. 80

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

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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

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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

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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

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Traces of the ancients around Sitia

A n inscription on a Minoan tablet bears the word "se-to-i-ja", the most ancient name The double axe symbol is found engraved on stone and clay vessels wherever the Minoans founded a settlement

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:

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. 86

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The Minoans from war and work to religion

O n 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

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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

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

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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

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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

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.

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The Venetian feudal territories

A s 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

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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

beautiful 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

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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

The palace at Etia with its two small churches has been carefully restored and is now listed as a national monument

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

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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.

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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

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In the silent villages

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Time seems to stop in the archaic and unsullied landscape around Perivolakia

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o 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.

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

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Along the coast of the Libyan sea

B ack on the main road leading to the sea, the white town of Lithines comes into view,

From outside the church seems rather poor, but inside it boasts surprisingly beautiful frescoes and holy icons

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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.

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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. The Venetian style of architecture and decoration continued to be adopted by local craftsmen even after Venetian rule ended

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. 102

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 29th 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

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The island of Koufonissi: a very special outing

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Murex shells are still to be found on the sandy beaches of the island of Koufonissi

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n 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

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.

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CHAPTER 5

PLACES OF WORSHIP UNDER A VAST SKY

PEAK SANCTUARIES MONI TOPLOU ITANOS PALAEKASTRO KARYDI ZAKROS ETIA AMBELOS

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Mountain-top sanctuaries

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n 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.

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

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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

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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

Votive offerings were hidden in fissures and cracks in the rocks

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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.

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

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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

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Travelling towards the “deserted city”

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rom 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

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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 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 monastery's museum has a rich collection of ancient documents and icons: the most famous is the painting by Ioannis Kornaros

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.

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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 118

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The Christian basilica has fallen into ruin, but contains the columns of the central nave, salvaged from Roman and Greek buildings

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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.

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Palaekastro and the mountain villages

TKouremenos he immense arc of the bay of (where nowadays the

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

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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

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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, 124

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A deep, dark hole marks the entrance to the large grotto of Peristeria situated between Karydi and Adravasti

The white village of Sitanos

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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. 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

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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

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A s 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

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".

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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

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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,

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

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The coast of the wild lilies

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

Jbeside ust after the village of Zakros, a turning the roadside remains of a Minoan

The rough and stony land of easternmost Crete is still untouched by the modern construction industry and mass tourism

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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.

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

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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.

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Chronology 7000 B.C. 6500-2800 B.C. 2800-2100 B.C. 2100-2000 B.C. 2000-1700 B.C. 1700 B.C. 1650-1500 B.C. 1500-1450 B.C. 1450-1200 B.C. 1200-1100 B.C. 1100-900 B.C. 900-69 B.C.

69 B.C.-330 A.D. 330-830 A.D. 830-961 A.D. 961-1204 A.D. 1204-1669 A.D. 1669-1898 A.D. 1898-1912 A.D.

1913 A.D.

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Stone Age, arrival of the first settlers Neolithic Age and the beginning of the Bronze Age Arrival of the Minoans, pre-Palace period Beginning of the First Palace period Palace civilization, construction of the First Palaces Destruction of the First Palaces by an earthquake Construction of the Second Palaces, Second Palace period Eruption of the volcano Thera and destruction of the Second Palaces Beginning of the post-Palace period, arrival of the Mycenaeans Beginning of the Iron Age Invasion of the Dorians Geometric, Archaic, Classical and Hellenistic periods. Creation of the city states, extensive trade with the Near East and Egypt. Roman conquest and the beginning of the Early Christian period First Byzantine period Invasion of the Arabs Second Byzantine period Venetian dominion and the first stirrings of Cretan resistance Turkish occupation and very active Cretan resistance Liberation from Turkish occupation and creation of the Autonomous Cretan State under the protection of the European powers Official union of Crete with Greece

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Glossary

Acropolis Ashlar-work Ayios -Ayia Eteocretan -

ancient citadel square-hewn stone masonry or facing ‘saint’ or ‘holy’ 'true Cretan', the last of the Minoan peoples in eastern Crete Dromos 'street', the unroofed passage leading into a tholos tomb Hestiatorion banqueting chamber in ancient buildings Iconostasis screen between the altar and the nave of the (Orthodox) church Kafeneion coffeehouse Kastro castle or fortified area Katholikon church or chapel within a monastery Kernos vessel used for religious rituals Janissaries young Ottoman soldiers, guards selected from Christian families and forced to convert to Islam Megaron the great hall of Minoan and Mycenaean palaces Mitate small stone house Paleos 'old' Panayia 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

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.

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