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Samaria or the Samaria Gorge is one of the main sights of Crete. Every tourist who visits Crete will have heard of this beautiful gorge or soon will.
Samaria Gorge is found in the White Mountains of south-west Crete in the district of Chania. They are called the White Mountains because the sun shining on the limestone rock of their peaks make them appear that colour.The capital of the district of Chania is the town of that name. It`s a very popular tourist destination on the north coast of the island. If you look at a map of Crete you will find the Samaria gorge directly south of the town but on the opposite coast.The White Mountains contain over forty gorges of various sizes. The best known are Imbros Gorge, The Gorge of Agia Irini and the Samaria Gorge which is definitely the most famous of them all. Even though these gorges are all to be found on the same part of the island of Crete, they all have different characteristics.Samaria Gorge is named after a village of that name which is found about halfway down the gorge. The village in turn gets its name from a small 14th century church sited close by. This is the church of the Holy Mary, in the Greek language, "Osia Maria." So it is easy to see where the name Samaria comes from!The village has been deserted since 1962. The last inhabitants had to leave when the whole area was designated as a National Park. Although many of the old houses still remain, they only act as accommodation for the Park wardens. The old church of Osia Maria is still there, a little way out of the village.All the gorges in the Crete Mountains in Chania were formed by the same geological process. Water ate away the soft limestone rocks over thousands of years after the land had been uplifted by seismic activity. This water erosion has also led to huge numbers of caves being formed. There are as many as 3,000 over the island. A lot of these caves are archaeologically and religiously significant. Over a 100 of the caves have churches in them.The Samaria Gorge starts near the small town of Xyloskalo on a level area in the White Mountains called the Omalos Plateau. The name Xyloskalo can be translated as "wooden stairway." This is because the locals had built just that thing to help them enter down the steep opening into the gorge.The Omalos Plateau is over 1,200 feet above sea level and the gorge runs in a southerly direction from there down to the south coast of Crete near the village of Agia Roumeli.Of all the things to do in Crete visiting the Gorge of Samaria is a must for many tourists, especially those on Crete walking holidays. Mnay Crete excursions are based around this great hike.Coaches will collect you early in the morning and take you to your starting point at Xyloskalo in the Crete mountains. Once you have completed the hike and reached Agia Roumeli on the coast, you catch a ferry boat to the nearby port of Hora Sfakion where your coach will collect you once more.The locals call the gorge "Farangas" which means "great gorge." They also like to claim that it is the longest gorge in Europe, but that is debatable.What is certain is that in some places it can definitely be counted amongst the narrowest!The most dramitic part is a a place known as "Sideroportes" or the "Iron Gates." Here the Samaria gorge is so narrow, being about four metres wide, that you feel as though you can reach out and touch both walls at the same time.If you look up at the cliffs, which rise almost vertically above you for 350 metres, you feel totally overawed!The journey down the gorge, from Xyloskalo to Agia Roumeli on the coast, is about 18 kilometres and although the hike is not an easy one, it is extremly beautiful. The path follows a clear stream which goes through heavily scented pine forests of tall Cypress trees. There are many olive trees and some small fields with low stone walls.The Samaria Gorge is only open to visitors between the beginning of May and the middle of October. There a charge for entering the gorge, at the moment it is 5 Euros. This goes towards the maintenance of the National Park. You must keep your ticket and hand it to the warden as you leave the park, this ensures that no-one is left in the gorge overnight.During the winter months you are unable to go down the gorge.This ban can even occur in the summer season if there has been rain. This is because the pretty stream you cross many times on your hike down the gorge can turn into a raging torrent. Rain or melting snow in the Crete mountains can raise the height of the water considerably.In fact the Village of Agia Roumeli, at the bottom of the gorge, was badly flooded in the 1950`s. There are still some ruined houses which are only now being rebuilt.High winds can also cause problems. Although you may not be aware of them when you are down in the gorge they have been known to cause stones to fall from the 350 metre high cliffs. In fact there are signs warning of this danger.Any walk down the gorge usually becomes a competition to spot the rare Kri-Kri.This is a Cretan Wild Ibex with distinctive curved horns. It was introduced into Samaria gorge as a refuge for it. In fact this is only one of two places it is to be found.If you are very lucky you may spot some rare birds such as the Griffon Vulture, Bonelli`s Eagle and the Golden Eagle.One thing about Samaria Gorge you should be aware of is its popularity. During the tourist season there will be lots of people hiking through it every day.The beauty and dramatic quality of Samaria Gorge make it one of the most popular gorges to visit in the world.
Paleochora is a big village in south-west Crete. Located on a small peninsula it has been a popular place for many many years because of its good beaches and pleasant surroundings. Getting there: Paleochora is 75 km from Chania on a good road. There are several buses per day. The village also has a ferryboat connection to other villages in south-west Crete. Atmosphere: It is a "real" village with a constant population of about 2000. Paleochora is lively and sometimes a little crowded in the high season but it is very easy to get away from the bustle. In summer months, the main road crossing the village as well as the road along the eastern sea front get closed to the traffic in the evening. This is wonderful if you have children as they can run around without danger. Accommodation: Huge choice of rooms, studios and self-catering apartments. Most of the time it is very easy to find something on the spot in Paleochora. Restaurants: Many restaurants of all kinds. Shopping: Good shopping for basic needs . Nightlife: Several bars and a discotheque. So there is a nightlife but it is not a loud place at night. Beach: Beautiful long sandy beach, a little exposed to the west wind which often blows here. There are several other more protected (but pebble) beaches nearby. There are more beaches further west at Konduras and Krios.
Your sightseeing around the wider area of Paleochora and one day trips to the colourful villages that are spread all over Selino province, will offer you a unique chance to visit and admire the Christian temples of our region.
The icon-paints and murals that adorn the old churches of Selino, remain in good condition, with images that, apart from the admiration for the technique, they submit the visitor-pilgrim to an introspection experience and spiritual awakening…
The riches of the area in muraled temples, cannot be found in any other region of Crete! Plenty Byzantine churches, most of them constructed in 14th and 15th century, in every village you visit in Selino. The spread of the population in small isolated settlements and the normal outcome of constructing temples on each of these areas, have bequeathed our land a long and importand “list” with Byzantine and Early Christian churches!
The muraled temples of the region are above 100 and we mention sign of places where a large number of churches are gathered and you are able to visit. Starting from
Paleochora
and with direction to the west villages of Selino, you will meet many churches in Voutas area, in Sklavopoula, Sarakina and the wider area of Koundoura. On the east part of our province, your sightseeing at villages like
Anidri, Azogires, Prodromi, Rodovani, Koustogerakocan be combined with visits to byzantine churches of the area. Going north to Vlithias, Kadros, Plemenianaand the wider area of Kandanos, you will have the chance to admire more indications of Christian worship and Byzantine icon-painting.
Lake Voulismeni is a former sweetwater lake, later connected to the sea, located at the centre of the town of Agios Nikolaos. It has a circular shape of a diameter of 137 m and depth 64 m. The locals refer to it as just "the lake". The lake connects to the harbour of the town by a channel dug in 1870. A panoramic view of the lake can be seen from a small park situated above it. According to legend, the goddess Athena and Artemis bathed in it. Every year at midnight turning to Orthodox Christian Easter day, the majority of the population of the town gathers around the lake to celebrate with fireworks, and firecrackers thrown by the people attending that highlight event.It was reported that the German army during their withdrawal from the area at WW2, disposed parts of their weaponry and/or vehicles into the deep lake.A local urban legend has it that the lake is bottomless. Based primarily on locals noticing disturbances at the surface of the water during the Santorini earthquake of 1956, many assume a possible geological relation of the two locations.
Milatos Beach is a by-the-sea development with many very good fish tavernas, a fishing port and a nice small beach in it. There are other beach areas, but they are very rocky. The beach inside the village is not so special though and if you want to find better beaches you have to make a short walk towards the village of Sisi. In between Sisi and Milatos there is a choice of three different beaches (Avlaki Sissi beach, Boufos and Harbor Sissi Beach). Milatos is located a few km east of Sissi and Malia, approximately 30 km west of Agios Nikolaos and 45 km east of Heraklion.
Milatos Beach is a by-the-sea development with many very good fish tavernas, a fishing port and a nice small beach in it. There are other beach areas, but they are very rocky. The beach inside the village is not so special though and if you want to find better beaches you have to make a short walk towards the village of Sissi. In between Sisi and Milatos there is a choice of three different beaches.
Apart from swimming and relaxing at the beach, the area is very good for sightseeing. Archaeological survey has shown that the actual scenic village with the cute small, whitewashed houses has been built on the place of the ancient homonymous Minoan city. According to tradition, Minoan people from this area had settled in Asia Minor in the mid-2 nd millennium b.C., and established the famous city of Milatos, which flourished for a long time in the Archaic and Classical periods. Several burials of the Late Minoan period have been found here.
The Municipal Market of Chania is located in the centre of the city and is an iconic building of Chania. With its 4,000 sq.m. this is one of the most important buildings of its kind in the Balkans. Since 1980 it has been declared as a protected monument.
In this place there was once the main venetian bastion, Piatta Forma, which was the entrance to the city. Like today, until the early 20th century took place here an outdoor street market of the villagers of the surrounding area. In 1908 by decision of the Municipal Authority began plans to create a building that would house the market, and would give the city a more organized image. The construction of the building began in 1911, with plans to the standards of the Marseilles market, influenced by the architecture of the industrial revolution, and was completed in 1913 where it was inaugurated on 4 December 1913, three days after the union of Crete with Greece, by the Prime Minister, Eleftherios Venizelos.
The building consists of four wings with separate entrances, and joined together forming a cross shape in plan of the building. Inside of it are housed 76 shops consisting of butchers, fishmongers, greengrocers, a pharmacy and several shops with souvenirs.
Crete is still pushing for Knossos (8km south from Iraklion) to be a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and is now preparing a new folder titled Minoan civilization, which will include the most important monuments on the island, such as Phaistos, Zakros and the archaeological site of Malia, with Knossos dominating the list.
Competent authorities who are editing the file with the code name Minoan civilization, estimate that this project could pave the way for including Knossos on the UNESCO world heritage list. The construction problems identified around the area of the Minoan palace that impede the monument’s inclusion might be minor matters since the file will not focus only on the palace, but also on all the monuments of the Minoan civilization.
The unification of the wider archaeological site of Knossos and Messara is a pilot program for the creation of a Cretan archaeological sites network which is also the first step to promote the claim to be included in the World Heritage of UNESCO. This was noted during a meeting between the local governor, Stavros Arnaoutakis and deputy governor of Heraklion, Euripides Koukiadakis. The men signed two major contracts on studying the process concerning the inclusion of the broader archaeological sites of Knossos and Messara.
The first contract refers to Unification of Archaeological sites of Knossos, Karteros, Archanes, and the second one refers to the study, Unification of Archaeological Sites Messara – Phaistos, Gortyna, Agia Triada, Kommos etc.
The Labyrinth
IF THE WORD ‘labyrinth’ does not lead us eventually back to the very earliest human communities, it has a good try. The Greek labyrinthos appears to be a linguistic echo from Egypt and Asia Minor. It is possible that it relates to labrys, a double-edged axe, emblem of the Cretan royal family. No one is certain, since tracing the origin of the word ‘labyrinth’ is itself an etymological labyrinth. It creeps into something like modern English as laboryntus in Chaucer’s House of Fame and has become by the early fifteenth century laberynthe, a maze. Except for specialised usages the terms ‘maze’ and ‘labyrinth’ then become almost indistinguishable in English. Fanshawe’s seventeenth-century Horatian translations talk about clews and mazes, so we are back with the Cretan labyrinth and Ariadne’s bobbined thread, which permitted Theseus to find his way out of the maze after he had executed his monster. Such a thread was a clew, or ball of yarn, providing us with our modern word ‘clue’.THE SENSE INITIALLY was of a structure designed to baffle and disorientate; to prevent curiosity; to hide that which must not be found, either because it was sacred or because it was shameful. It may not always be a minotaur in there (and see below), but there will be something whose immediate disclosure is either undesirable or forbidden. It could be a monster, a priest or a crocodile. The secondary sense is of any structure or series of structures which, whatever their primary purpose, have the effect of baffling us as we try to find our bearings. Instead of finding our route, we stand amazed. ‘Amazed’ caught on quickly and stayed; ‘labyrinthed’ was introduced, but never won through – it sounds too clumsy. ‘Amazement’ worked well, though in modern usage we are more likely to say ‘labyrinthine’ than ‘mazy’; three centuries back, it would have been the other way around. And then there are the mazes and labyrinths whose function is purely ludic and recreational, whether in Versailles or Hampton Court. These are structures designed for those with time on their hands, time to get lost during luxurious and lengthy afternoons.What are the earliest known sightings? The first structure known to be entitled labyrinth was a vast building in Northern Egypt, constructed some time around 2000 BCE. Herodotus was astounded by it. It had been built at a vast expense of human labour, just above Lake Moeris, opposite Crocodipolis. There were fifteen hundred rooms on the top floor, according to Herodotus, and fifteen hundred below. The lower ones he was not permitted to visit, since they contained the tombs of kings and sacred crocodiles. A later traveller, Strabo, appears to confirm much of what the frequently unreliable Herodotus says, and describes the Egyptian labyrinth as a work equal in scope to the pyramids. There was a sacred crocodile in the lake, which was tame and came whenever called. It was fed flesh, honey and wine. Pliny too confirms that Egyptian labyrinths were the ‘most stupendous’ works ever constructed.The Romans built a village over the site, using the labyrinth itself as a quarry for the purpose. Others, including Louis XIV’s Antiquary, came much later and noted the sad state of the ruins that remained. Flinders Petrie identified the actual site with accuracy in 1888. It appeared that it might well have been intended, like so many other grand buildings in Egypt, as a sepulchral monument, probably for King Amenemhat III, whose mummified remains, together with those of his daughter Sebekneferu, were entombed in a nearby pyramid.BUT THE LABYRINTH which has come to us in legend and myth, and from which we take the name, is of course the Cretan one. King Minos had a son named Androgeos who went travelling in Attica, and was treacherously slain by the inhabitants of that region. Minos imposed a dire penalty. The Athenians had to send seven youths and seven maidens every nine years to Knossos. These would then be inserted, one by one, into the labyrinth, the bafflingly complex structure erected by that technological genius, Daedalus. He had built this fearsome edifice, not for pleasure or even wonder, but for incarceration. The wife of Minos, Queen Pasiphae, had copulated with a beautiful white bull and brought forth the miscegenated hybrid, the minotaur, which had a man’s body but a bull’s head, and which was characterised by fearful strength and even more fearful appetites.Theseus was the son of the King of Athens, Aegeus, and offered to become one of the fourteen votive offerings to the minotaur on the next marine consignment. He would then devise a means of killing the troublesome and ravenous therianthrope. Reluctantly, the King complied, insisting that Theseus should show that he was victorious on his return journey by changing the black sail on his boat to white.On his arrival in Crete, Theseus was helped by Ariadne to kill her half-brother. She had fallen in love with this foreign prince at first glance; a goddess was imposing her curse here, as so often. The thread she supplied let him find his way out of the labyrinth after the killing. She had asked only that he take her away with him after his heroic deeds were completed. She had, after all, just arranged the assassination of her half-brother. He did take her away, but abandoned her on Naxos, the first island the sailors came to after Crete. At Delos the sailors performed a notable dance called the Crane Dance, in which they re-threaded their way through the labyrinth in ritual form. This dance was performed by the islanders for thousands of years after Theseus’s departure. There seems to have been a fair amount of revelry on board – and presumably a few jokes about the lovelorn Ariadne whom the skipper had so casually dumped – and on their approach to the mainland Theseus forgot to change the black sail to white. His father Aegeus, watching from the cliff, assumed he had lost his beloved son to the monster, and threw himself into the sea, thereby giving it the name it still holds: the Aegean.This is the legend. From the beginning there were alternative accounts. Philochorus insisted the labyrinth was no more than a run-of-the-mill dungeon. The youths were kept there until they could be awarded to victors in the sports held in honour of Minos’s murdered son. The minotaur was neither more nor less than a fanatical and brutal military officer, who happened to bear the name Tauros. So he was, then, Minos’s Tauros; thus do we elide our way towards a minotaur. Plutarch quotes a work of Aristotle which has not survived: in that the youths were not slaughtered but instead employed as slaves, a routine transaction for those days. Plutarch points out that Minos was a noble ruler, famed for his justice, who in no way deserved the calumnies Greek tradition had inflicted upon him. But rationality was condemned to the margin and the footnote: there was after all a better story to be told. In the Darwinian scheme of narratives, it is the strongest tales that survive their telling.And this particular tale has continued to be told. The labyrinth, like Bluebeard’s chamber, is of just as much interest whether it arose from some vestiges of historical occurrence, or expresses instead a psychological necessity to tell and re-tell such narratives. What the imagination chooses and retains is not necessarily that which is vouchsafed by history, and yet we continue to hunt down whatever history might offer us as collateral in the form of archaeology, as if still determined to prove the legend true. At the beginning of the eighteenth century the French botanist Joseph Pitton de Tournefort explored the cavern at Gortyna, long thought to be the original labyrinth. Some said it was merely a quarry used to build the local settlements, but Tournefort thought it too inaccessible for such a purpose. It was certainly an easy place to get lost in, and the locals finally sealed off most of the passages, for fear of losing their children in there. Tournefort’s book about his travels and his excavations, A Voyage into the Levant, was translated by John Ozell and published in London in 1718. It contains this vivid account of the labyrinthine experience to be had there: ‘If a man strikes into any other Path, after he has gone a good way, he is so bewildered among a thousand Twistings, Twinings, Sinuosities, Crinkle-Crankles and Turn-again Lanes, that he could scarce ever get out again without the utmost danger of being lost.’STILL, KNOSSOS ITSELF remained to be explored; ruined walls made of enormous blocks of gypsum, which still bore elaborate engraved marks. Arthur Evans (not yet Sir) finally got there in 1900, and started to excavate. He found what he believed was a large palace, and the objects discovered within it were of such significance that Evans decided they were the products of an ancient civilization of sufficient import that it deserved a name of its own. That name, Evans ruled, was ‘Minoan’. Here he found pictographic inscriptions, which he concluded had existed prior to the Phoenician, and therefore offered an alternative system of foundations for our written language. He also found a large area for dancing, an orchestra in the original sense, which is to say a place for the chorus of dancers. Images showing bull-leaping were numerous. This seems to have been a highly dangerous sport which consisted of a young man catching the horn of a charging bull and leaping over him. Evans speculates that this lethal activity might well have involved training up young captives (rather like gladiators) to provide a sport that might have had a ritual significance too.And so we could have arrived, by a sequence of crinkle-crankles, at the origin of the story of the Cretan labyrinth, and the sacrificial death of the young, particularly since some centuries elapsed between the destruction of these buildings and the first written accounts of the legend. Evans himself concluded that a mighty earthquake had ruined Knossos around 1600 BCE; modern archaeology tends to disagree.He did find one other thing that gave him pause. Thirty feet down from the palace floor there was an artificial cave, with three big steps leading into it. It gave the impression of being the rough dwelling of some formidable beast.LABYRINTHS APPEAR ON Egyptian seals and amulets. And around 500 BCE there are Knossian silver coins, some of which bear an image of the minotaur on one side and on the other a symmetrical meander pattern, a labyrinth. One shows the minotaur dancing on the obverse; on the reverse is a swastika labyrinth. The minotaur, the labyrinth and Theseus and his weapon, then become recurrent motifs in western art. They appear as a graffito at Pompeii, and mosaics in Caerleon, Salzburg and Cormerod in Switzerland. Each image registers a complicated structure which at its heart houses the minotaur. Theseus is duly making his way there, or has already arrived, and is clubbing the monster to death. The motif begins to appear in pottery: Greek kylices show Theseus and his many exploits, including the killing of the minotaur. Smaller versions appear on ancient gems. There is a series of drawings called the Florentine Picture Chronicle, ascribed to Baccio Baldini. In one of them, all aspects of the minotaur story are seen simultaneously. The collection was once owned by John Ruskin, and is now in the collection of the British Museum.
Agios Nikolaos, with over forty years of experience in the tourism industry, is an international and cosmopolitan resort that welcomes thousands of visitors annually.
The lake is its most charming feature. Legend suggests that Athena and Armetis bathed in its waters. This lake is connected to the sea by a straight channel, while its natural surroundings of red rock and trees attract the visitor magnetically.
At a small open-air theatre by the lake, locals and visitors alike can enjoy interesting artistic and cultural presentations. A walk around the shops of Agios Nikolaos is an enjoyable experience. In the many stores the visitor can find a wide selection of traditional Cretan artwork, copies of pieces from different archaeological museums, jewelry, and embroidery. There are also many examples of woven goods and Byzantine icons.There are bustling cafeterias, charming coffeehouses and taverns serving traditional Cretan “mesedes” or tidbits of local food.
Agios Nikolaos Agios Nikolaos Agios Nikolaos
You can find innumerable opportunities for night-time entertainment at a variety of cafes and restaurants. Visit the outdoor summer cinema ”Christina” where the surrounding walls are covered by honeysuckle, or find other places of entertainment where genuine Cretan feasts are always accompanied by local wine or strong raki.
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