Agioi Apostoloi

Lapathos Plateau is 9 kilometers far to east from Symi or Simi village in Lassithi prefecure at the southern slopes of Dikti mountains. It is a hidden and unknown area on the Lasithi mountains and you have access to the plateau from Simi Village through a new asphalt road for the first 6km and a dirt road for the next 5km (see the map below).

 

From Lapathos starts one of the most rugged gorges in the Lassithi mountains the Holy Apostels Gorge.

The plateau of Lapathos is one of the most beautiful areas in Crete, on the southern border of the county of Heraklion and Lasithi with Kato Simi village to belong in Heraklion and Pano Symi to Lasithi, and is located in the lap of the most dense and substantial pine forest of Crete together with the adjacent Selakano and Malles forests. The whole region is full of water springs gushing from the slopes of Dikti mount. On the plateau you meet the churches of Panagia Galatoktismenis and Nistikoktismenis and St. George. The first so named because the chapel was built of mud and milk instead of water by fasting builders throughout construction. The church of St. George is situated about one kilometer outside the uninhabited settlement Apano Symi, at an altitude of 940 meters and has frescoes by Emmanuel Fokas from the mid 15th cent. On the plateau is also a beautiful church of the Holy Apostles. The visitor can see numerous caves in the area, used by rebels in the past : the Zympraga Spiliaria , the Kissospilio, the cave Leri , the Spilio of Boubouli , the Spilio Riza and Spilio Chalavra. 

A small village built at an altitude of 540 m in the south parts of the mountain Dikti at the borders of the province of Ierapetra-Viannos. The imposing mountains above the village, the south horizon among the olive-covered hills and in the lower villages, the cool climate create in you a sensation of bodily and spiritual well-being at this balcony of the Cretan nature.
Five settlements, two of them uninhabited today, constituted the Community of Riza, now a Local Department of the Municipality of Ierapetra.
Sfakoura is in the east, with the church of the Holy Cross, the cemetery, the memorial of those fallen during the German Occupation, and the ruins of Riza’s “Koules”. Here the Greek flag was raised by the guerillas of Captain Bantouvas.
Here the atrocity of the conquerors was manifested, as testified by the sculls of the neomartyrs with the coups de grace, as in Kalavryta. 
Another settlement is Zourva or Riza, as it was renamed, and in the west, the settlement of “Kaimenos”.
Abandoned settlements are Tsikaloudiana, in the entrance of the village, taking its name by the Tsikaloudakis family who lived there, and the Panakiana, a little below the village, taking their name from the Panakakis or Panakomihelakis family.
Riza is an old medieval village, a natural stronghold, with history, civilization, legends and traditions. The settlement “Kaimenos” (burnt) took its name from its first settler, whose inn was repeatedly burned down by the pirates. The legend of Sarantapihos, who lived next to Riza, in the west, in the gorge of Lapathos and its treasure as well as its tomb next to the road, among other traditions, are intense in the memory of the residents of Riza.
The old churches of Riza are also important having an exceptional interest, as well as these of Pano Symi, which belongs to Riza’s parish. 
A heroic, martyric village, it was burned many times since the times of the Venetian rule. A hideout of guerillas, as it was adjacent to the steep Lasithi mountains. In 1881 174 residents were registered in the census. In 1920 it had 217 residents and in 2001 40 residents.
The Riza village is today inhabited by pensioners, a few stock and bee keepers and emigrants of the Riza community in Athens. It is a small but very lively village, with a wide square, a tavern-coffee house, all of them done by the Riza association. Here residents of Riza, coming from the whole area, are gathered every day to drink coffee, raki and declare their love to their village. Riza is the village of the Artist of the Traditional Cretan music Manolis Alexakis, as they all exclaim.
Going to see the sights of Riza, in the routes of immense natural beauty to the plateau of Lapathos, the view to the Libyan Sea and to the surrounding areas, as seen from the observatories installed by the association of Riza, is astounding. Pin trees, hollies, cypresses, the small plateau with the old little church of the Saint Apostles, the cliffs, the gulfs, the gorge offer a unique touring experience.