Southern Crete Adventures

What's Included

Meeting and pickup

Itinerary

• 1

  The archaeological site of Gournia sits on the north coast of the Isthmus of Ierapetra in East Crete. Possessing some 50 well-preserved houses, a system of cobbled streets, a central court, a Minoan palace, and cemetery, Gournia gives the visitor the best picture of what a Late Bronze Age (1500 B.C.) town looked like. Gournia was a regional production center of bronze tools and weapons, domestic objects, and pottery and stone vases, an active trade emporium with overseas connections to other parts of the Aegean and the Near East, and the palatial administrative center for the Mirabello region. Its harbor complex consists of a monumental shipshed, fortification walls with towers, a riverside dam, and a cobbled street running from the coast to Town.

  30 minutes • Admission ticket not included
• 2

  The Fortress of Kales Ierapetra is located at the entrance of the city port and it is the only surviving fort in the south urban center in the south coast of Crete. Dating back to the early Venetian 13th-15th century and belongs to the type of rectangular fortifications. During the Turkish occupation, the fortress held extensive repairs, that amended the outside and inside. Today is an archaeological site.

  20 minutes • Admission ticket free
• 3

  It’s a two floor traditional architecture building located in the oldest district of Ierapetra, in Kato Mera. Upon tradition Napoleon Bonaparte stayed in the building during the one-day or a few days stop in Crete during his return from Egypt. The building’s morphology is converging towards its date in late 18th or early 19th century, without excluding the construction of an earlier era.

  15 minutes • Admission ticket not included
• 4

  Ierapetra’s mosque in Kato Mera area was built according to dates listed in the infrared entrance and the south wall medal, the year of Hegira 1309. (189/892) perhaps the oldest mosque position. It is a building square with a wooden, four-sided roof plan covered with tiles. In its architecture elements that come from neoclassical and eclectic tendencies are distinguished, that arrived in Crete during the last 19th century decades. In the mosque’s northwest corner as it is used, a head uncovered today minaret is discovered. The upper portion crashed in the 1953 earthquake. Ottoman fountain is located in the southwest of the mosque and form with it a remarkable complex of the Ottoman architecture in Crete. The fountain belongs to the fountain category sebil and a constituted expiation before worshipers entry to the mosque.

  15 minutes • Admission ticket not included
• 5

  According to Greek mythology, the giant Sarantapihos, who was the son of Zeus, once stopped to drink water from the river Kryos or Myrtos, near Ierapetra. His long beard slashed the mountain in two parts and created the canyon of Sarakina. Sarakina is located very close to the traditional village Mythi and near the seaside settlement of Myrtos, where the river Kryos exits to the sea.

  1 hour • Admission ticket free

Additional info

• Service animals allowed
• Public transportation options are available nearby
• Specialized infant seats are available
• Not recommended for travelers with spinal injuries
• Not recommended for pregnant travelers
• Suitable for all physical fitness levels

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