Malia / Lasithi Plateau/ Psychro Cave / Krasi

The Archaeological Palace of Malia is situated on the North coast of Crete, East of Heraklion. To the south lie the Lasithi mountains. At 7,500 square metres, it is the third largest of the Minoan palaces. The Minoan name for the Palace is not known and it takes its name from a local town.

It is now thought that the first monumental architecture to be erected on the Malia site dates back to EM IIB. An EM IIB building, or possibly a group of buildings, built around a large open space has been discovered below the present Palace, and aligned in the same way. Below this EM IIB building are the remains of EM IIA architecture built in a more simple style and based on a different orientation.

In the view of Jan Driessen, the EM II building or buildings would not have been a Palace like the ones that emerged later but would have been more like a monumentalised court, the beginning of a process of bringing ritual in from the natural environment to a closed, artificially constructed environment.

Already in the pre-palatial period the town had grown to occupy an area of 2.58 hectares, with remains of the town found beneath the Palace and to the north west.

Some of the walls in the West magazines of the Palace had been constructed in EM II and incorporated into the new structures when the first palace was built, where they remained standing until the final destruction of the Palace.

When these walls were first excavated, Vasiliki ware pottery (from EM II) was found in a foundation deposit.

The Keras Kardiotissas Monastery or simply Keras Monastery is an eastern orthodox monastery dedicated to virgin mary that is situated near the village of kera of heraklion regional unit in crete, greece. It is built north slopes mt. Dikti, at an altitude 650 m and a location that approximately 50 km east heraklion, next road lasithi plateau.

The exact date of the monastery's establishment is unknown. However, references to it are made in manuscripts dating from the early fourteenth century.

The monastery was named after an old icon of Theotokos that according to tradition was miraculous. That icon was stolen in 1498 by a wine merchant and transferred to Rome where it is now permanently enshrined in the Church of St. Alphonsus near the Esquiline Hill. The stolen icon was replaced by another one in 1735 that is also regarded as miraculous.

During the Ottoman occupation of Crete, the monastery often served as a local revolutionary center and suffered several retaliatory attacks as a result. In 1720, Kera monastery became Stauropegic (independent of the local Bishop).

The monastery is surrounded by fortified walls. The main church (katholikon) was originally built as an arch-covered single space structure and was later expanded with two narthexes and a smaller chapel. The church features murals dating to the 14th and 15th centuries.

Today, the monastery functions as a nunnery. It celebrates the birth of Mary on September 8th every year. The Lasithi Plateau

The Lasithi Plateau was the location for one of Europe’s first wind farms with thousands of windmills pumping water from the wells. This beautiful scenery with the few remaining white sails, as well as the picturesque villages nearby will take you back to the ambience of a different era.

The Psychro Cave is one of the most important religious sites of antiquity, associated with many myths. One of them identifies the cave as the Dictaean Cave, the place where Rhea gave birth to Zeus. Important archaeological finds were discovered here, such as figurines, jewellery, votive offerings, tools, vases, inscriptions in Linear A writing, altars, etc. Observe the impressive stalagmites and stalactites, floor and celling formations, in the lower cave.

Krasi Village

Point of reference of the village is the perennial huge plane tree whose trunk has got a perimeter of 24 meters and is branched into several arms.

The plane tree is 2400 years old and it is said that each meter of its perimeter corresponds to 100 years. It is estimated that more than ten people are required to hug this giant trunk.

This plane tree is among the 5 largest European trees. As stated by the Dutch forester, Jeroen Pater, there are 200 trees in Europe with a diameter more than 10 meters.

This plane tree is a whole ecosystem and the visitors are attracted by its beauty by coming from afar to admire it and it is located next to the beautiful arched water fountains.

Recently, it was hit by a lightning strike and unfortunately, it lost about 8 meters from its height, but that was not enough to hurt this tree.

The perennial plane tree in Krasi is a monument of the nature and history of the place. With its wide foliage, it covers the square of the village in which the most central café is located.

It is a place of relaxation for residents and visitors during the period of summer as its shade is a real pleasure on the hot days.

It is known that Nikos Kazantzakis, this great writer, spent several summers in Krasi along with other people of art.

This village was a place of rest and creation and was chosen, apart from Nikos Kazantzakis, by Markos Avgeris, Kostas Varnalis and the Alexiou family, who all set up the “literary company of Krasi”.

Next to the plane tree, a stone-built aqueduct, with the arched stone water fountains is located.

The fountains were built in 1890 by craftsmen from Mochos village, as evidenced by the inscription being there. The water fountains are two, the upper one and the down one. They are arched and each one has got a trough. Right next to the down water fountain, stone troughs of the village are located. There, the women of the village used to wash their clothes in the past. The waters come from Selena’s mountain range and flow all year round. This project is still watering a large area and nowadays, these water fountains offer clear and cool water to visitors.

Moreover, the visitors have the chance to see the old cluster of irrigation system consisted of flumes that worked for the transfer of water to the gardens and fields of the villagers.