The first stop was a monastery. High in the hills on the way to the Lassithi plateau is the old Monastery of Kera Kardiotissa. It is dedicated to the Virgin Mary and is run by nuns and known locally as Little Lourdes and people do pilgrimages here. A nice old church but no photos allowed inside. There are antique Byzantine hagiographies (icons). €2 entry.
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| View from the monastery |
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| a nun |
We then went higher and stopped for lunch with a view down onto the plateau -
We went down to the plateau. I really loved the geology, the almost bare hills, some covered with small stones. The Lassithi plateau is a large plateau 850 m high surrounded by the Dikti mountains. It may be an old volcano crater. The water drains out through a tunnel at one end, though I'm not sure if this is natural or manmade. There are/were 10,000 windmills, used for irrigation, although strictly speaking they are wind pumps rather than mills.
There are a few potters and pottery shops up on the plateau. However the clay comes from elsewhere and it brought up to the shops
The tour included a visit to Dikte Cave, see separate blog
View down to the coast -
© Liz Price
No reproduction without permission
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