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Prefecture: Chania
Address: Μουσούρες, Ελλάδα
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Places near Agios Panteleimonas
Hiking and nature close to Zourva village: From Lakki Village - Vrisi gorge and Vrissi water source - Zourva village.
We started from Lakki, a village on the way to Omalos plateau, 460m asl.
The path is marvelous and we enjoyed every step. Our direction was eastward. We were walking discovering gradually all the surprises of this gorge.At the end of the gorge there is a cave with an underground river, from which the gorge took its name (Vrissi=Fount).
Facing the gorge from above we stayed surprised: rugged yet beautiful places, cypresses, oaks and their amazing flowers dominating the view. Unfortunately in the midst of this beauty the signs of the destructive presence of man with the recent fires is obvious.
We are on the way to the cave - fountain and now the path began to be uphill. This old trail becomes more and more difficult.It has been already 3 hours and we approach our destination, the fountain which supplies water the villages Zourva and Lakki, an impressive mountain location with an altidude of 790m.
On the right hand side of the road descending from the Omalos plateau to Chania, there is the large canyon-cave called Honos or the Cave of Tzanis, which served as the den of the chieftain Tzanis Markos during the first years of the Turkish invasion.
Nicknamed ‘Fovos’ (fear), he struck terror into the hearts of the invaders. The cave was explored for the first time by speleologists from Chania and France. It is 2.5 kms in length, and the height of the cavern is 241 metres; it forms a huge covered gorge.
Opposite the entrance of the cave of Tzanis, on a small knoll, there is the Tower and chapel of the famous rebel chieftain from Lakki and hero of the Lefka Ori, Hadzimihalis Yiannaris (1851-1916). One of the pioneers in the uprisings of 1855 and 1856 and a major contributor to the great uprising of 1866-1869, he was imprisoned many times by the Turks but always managed to escape. On one occasion, about to attempt the almost impossible escape from the fortress of Firkas in Chania in 1860, he vowed that if successful he would build the small chapel of Agios Panteleimon in Omalos next to the Tower. He kept the vow and, honoured as a general, was buried there according to his own wishes, in his old "lair". Great both in stature and soul, he served as a general leader of the district of Kydonia in Chania from 1866 to 1898.
Lakkoi (Greek: Λάκκοι), commonly spelled Lakki on road signs and maps, is a village on the Greek island of Crete in the foothills of the Lefka Ori (White Mountains). The village is situated on the road between Chania and the plateau of Omalos which leads to the Samaria Gorge.
Lakkoi is 450 meters high, below the White Mountains which rise another 1,000 meters to the south. Most of the houses cling to steep slopes covered in olive and chestnut trees, reached through narrow roads or tracks that run down from the main square.The climate is cool in winter, with occasional snow, wet in spring, hot and dry in the summer. In the unusually dry summer of 2007, major brush fires broke out twice, burning about 2,000 acres and threatening the village itself.Traditionally the villagers have cultivated olives and raised goats, sheep and chickens. With limited work opportunities, the population has declined from a peak of around 2,000 to about 400 today. There are signs of growth as houses are being purchased and renovated by citizens of other European Union countries seeking low-cost retirement or vacation homes.The first historical mention of the village dates from 1263, when the Lakkoi chieftain Pentachtenis took part in a revolt against the Venetians. In a later revolt in 1570 the chieftain George Mousouris became Secretary General of the rebel forces, based in the nearby village of Meskla.After the Ottoman conquest of the island, the people of Lakkoi were involved in periodic revolts, notably the revolt of 1821-1828 during the Greek War of Independence, where an Ottoman army of 5,000 men led by Latif Pasha of Chania was routed in a pitched battle at Lakki. In the great rebellion of 1866-1869 Katerina Stamataki of Lakkoi was a distinguished woman revolutionary.During the Battle of Crete in May 1941 and the days that followed, four hundred and eighty five men and women resisted the German occupiers, and sixty eight Lakkoiotes lost their lives in the fight for the freedom of Greece.