Crete

Crete (Kriti) is the largest Greek island. It is the border between the Aegean and Libyan seas and between Europe and Africa. The climate is considered one of the mildest and healthiest in Europe.

The island is very mountainous. Deep gorges split its huge mountains (Lefka, Ori, Psiloritis, Dikti) leading to fertile valleys, creating a landscape full of surprises and which changes minute by minute, bare and wild, green and peaceful. More than 3,000 large and small caves, several of them with impressive stalactites and stalagmites, are of special interest and honeycomb the mountains.

Untrodden rocky coasts, vast sandy beaches and pebble shores define the seaside. Dry-stone farm buildings, villages perching on high plateaus, monasteries, isolated castles and chapels dot the countryside. Villages drowning in green, olive green, vine green, citrus green and vegetable green, add living colour to the sometimes harsh views, in which life's traditional Cretan rhythms have not changed in centuries: coffee under the shade of old trees, traditional dances, sousta and pentozali to the sound of the Cretan lyre and the sweetness of Cretan wine.

Old cities hide behind walls, their complicated narrow alleys winding past squares, churches and the ruins of palaces. The main city ports like that at the port town of Hania, built on top of ancient Kydonia, picturesque Rethimno, Iraklio, cosmopolitan Agios Nikolaos and beautiful Sitia grew up on the north side of the island and only peaceful Ierapetra is on the shores of the Libyan sea, facing Africa. They are cities living the fast pace of modern life, developing day by day. Shops selling folk art, textiles, pottery, leather goods and department stores with luxury items spring up like mushrooms. Greengrocers bring the rich produce of the fertile valleys and greenhouses to the market places.

Days awash in brilliant sunlight, emerald clear waters, star spangled nights redolent with the smells of jasmine and honeysuckle, this is Crete remembered. Knossos, Festos, Malia, Zakros, Aptera, Lato, Driros, Gortys, Arkadi: names which played an important role in the history of the island from Neolithic to modern times.

All of the above compose the multidimensional image of Crete, on whose soil flourished one of the most important civilisations, the Minoan, and was the birthplace of such important artists and writers as El Greco, Damaskinos, Kazantzakis and many others.