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Μεσκλά 
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Places near Church
The canyon Sarakina (there is also a second Sarakina gorge in East Crete) starts north of the village of Zourva and ends after 2 km, at Meskla village, where 200m before the village, are the "doors" of the gorge with a height of about 15 meters and a width of about 1.5 m.
The vegetation is rich and the walker can see formations and caves of exceptional natural beauty. The river is dry only for 1-2 months a year (July-September). The gorge is quite rough, because there is no path and the dense vegetation makes it difficult to cross. During the summer and until the first autumn rains, it is easy to walk the distance of 200 meters up from Meskla to the "doors".
Built among large orange groves, Meskla looks so serene and pretty that it is hard to think it was twice destroyed in the past. But it was. The Venetians, first, and the Turks later, laid everything waste, and it is indeed very fortunate that two Byzantine churches managed to survive, even though they were seriously damaged.
It can be reached by taking the exit to the left in the village of Fournes. The road on the right heads for the villages of Lakki and Omalos. A narrow road with many curves that leads through forest, orange groves and olive groves will take you to Meskla in about 20 to 30 minutes. Meskla is the site of an ancient city, and various artefacts and remains of cyclopean walls have been found here.
The church of Christ the Saviour has some wonderful wall paintings by the hand of the Veneri brothers (1403), but unfortunately they suffered severe and irreparable damage. The church of the Virgin Mary, a little further to the north, is particularly interesting, as it contains parts of earlier buildings including a temple of Aphrodite that was once built in this exact place.
It is also worth noting that the mosaic covering part of the present church floor was once the mosaic floor of a fifth century basilica. Finally, around the village one can see many ancient ruins of homes as well as parts of a city wall. Although it is not certain which city that wall surrounded, the ruins are thought to belong to the ancient town of Rizinia.
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