Crete's Lasithi Prefecture Overview Page One

Crete's Lasithi Prefecture Overview Page One

Crete's Lasithi Prefecture

Coming from Heraklion Province, instead of approaching the Lasithi Plain from the villages of Mohos, Krasi and Kera along the road that branches from Stalidha (as detailed in the Heraklion Prefecture treatise), you can continue along the coast road past Malia and will soon be on the northwestern edge of Lasithi Prefecture.

 The main highway will have cut inland toward Neapoli and Aghios Nikolaos, but the old coast road will continue on to the resorts of Sisi and Milatos. The former has an upper and lower village, the lower on a little harbor with a sandy beach. This is Sisi Paralia, with all the trappings of most beach resorts. To the east is Paralia Milatou (pic right) ('paralia' meaning waterfront), with a pebble beach. It was in a cave not far from here that a large number of Greeks (the numbers quoted vary from 2700 to 3600) took refuge during rebellions against the Turks during the early years of the Greek War of Independence. Forced to surrender, the Greeks were promised safe conduct, but instead the men and children were massacred and the women taken as slaves. There is a small chapel at the cave's entrance, with an ossuary containing the victims' bones. It is one of the great ironies of history that such places of human horror can later become pleasure spots for unknowing revelers from other lands.

 In ancient times Milatos had been an important city mentioned by Homer in the Iliad as one of the seven Cretan cities that had sent soldiers to Troy. There are at least a couple of versions in mythology about King Minos' brother Sarpedon, with different reasons for his having left Crete for Asia Minor, where he founded the city of Miletus (whose name is almost the same as that of the city he left behind in Crete).

Though many will take the paved road from here toward Neapolis, there are old dirt roads that go there as well, and others around the Aghios Ioannis peninsula. Neapolis was the old capital of Lasithi province before Aghios Nikolaos. It is a pleasant town with almond groves and a green central square, as well as a museum (open Tues-Sun 10am-1pm and 6-9pm) with traditional craft items and some finds from Dreros. The Heraklion Archaeological Museum houses the hammered bronze statues (the oldest in Greece) found there in a seventh-century BC Temple of Apollo Dhelphinios (one of the oldest temples found in Greece). The name 'Dhelphinios' comes from the cult surrounding Apollo in the form of a dolphin (dhelfini), which was the form he took when guiding sailors. The delphic cult existed in Miletus in Asia Minor, echoing the story about King Minos' brother who had gone there to found that city. Found in the same temple were Eteocretan inscriptions (Minoan words in Greek letters).

 The Lasithi Plain

 Really a round plateau, like a bowl, ringed by mountains. The soil that has created the brilliant green patchwork of crops in the bowl has come down from those mountains, and potatoes, pears, figs, apples, olives, cereals, are all grown there. The villages sit higher up along the rim of the bowl, hence avoiding the spring floods (from melted snow) and in summer the windmills pump water back up to the drier land. Though there are still some of the old cloth-sailed , stone wind-mills still working (also for grinding wheat), most have been replaced with gas-run pumps since the 1970s. The Venetians built 10,000 of them for irrigation of orchards during the fifteenth century after a century-long ban on cultivation and pasture following rebellions by the Cretans, during which the Venetians banished all of them, destroyed their villages and guarded the passes to keep them out.

There is a ring of eighteen villages around and above the plateau, the largest of which is Tzermiado with a population of about 1500. Trapeza was a sacred cave dating from 5000 BC where votive offerings were left, which was used as a burial ground during Minoan times.

Aghios Nikolaos

 This is the largest little port town of eastern Crete has grown since the port expanded in 1965. Previously there was no adequate berths, and boats had to dock at Pahia Ammos to the east. After that, things took off and its really quite a pleasant place. The setting is dramatic, with an amphitheater-type village looking down on a round lake as well as the sea, and the stunning Mirabello Bay. There was, in fact, a port here in ancient times, called Lato, over-looking the islet of Agios Pandes, where the indigenous kri-kri goats live. Lake Voulismeni (whose name comes from the Greek word for drowning), though often called 'bottomless' is actually 210 feet deep. It was connected with the sea in 1867 by the local pasha, having previously been stagnant.

Bars and eating places surround both lake and port. Touts ruin the atmosphere and will, much like lemmings encourage you to dine as you saunter around the lake which may be exited by stone stairways too so you don't have to run the gauntlet twice.
Desirable beaches are few and the better ones taken up by hotels. There is a small sandy beach at Ammoudi at the end of the Koundourou Akti, and on the other end of town near the bus station is Ammos. The public beach, which costs to go to, is crowded; but from there one can walk to Gargardoros Beach and to Almyros, the last being the best near town.

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