Herakleion - Karteros junction - cave
of Eileithyia - Angarathos monastery
- (Sambas - Apostoloi) - Kasteli - Lyttos
- Thrapsano - Myrda or Varvaroi -
Houdetsi - Epanosifi monastery.
Return: Vathypetro - Archanes -
Knossos - Herakleion.

From the Karteros junction, after the
8th km. from Herakleion, a right detour in
the road leads to the cave of Eileithyia.
According to mythology, this is where
Hera gave birth to Eileithyia, the goddess
of childbirth. The cave is mentioned by
Homer and Strabo. The excavations here
were begun by Joseph Hadjidakis and
were continued by Spyros Marinates.

The cave is long and narrow (length
64.5 m., width 9-12 m.) and measures
3-4.5 m. in height.

The entrance is through an opening on
the east side. Approximately in the centre
of the cave, a rectangular wall surrounds
two cylindrical stalagmites which resemble
figures of a mother and child.

It is believed that these stalagmites were
objects of worship. From the finds, which
include a kind of altar and a number of
potsherds scattered about,
archaeologists concluded that the cave
had been a place of worship since Neoli-
thic times and up to the 5th century AD

Further along the road to the south and
passing through the villages of Stamnoi, Episkopi, Sgourokephali, we come to the Angarathos monastery (23 kms. from Herakleion), an important monastery dedicated to the Dormition of the Virgin. It owes its name to the "angarathia" (a type of bush) under which the icon of the Virgin was found. The church was later built on this spot. It is one of the oldest monasteries in Crete and is mentioned in documents of the 16th century.

It played an important part in the defense of the island against the Turks, when the latter made their attempts to take Crete from the Venetians.

In the village of Sambas there is a fork
to the east leading to the villages of
Apostoloi and Kastelli Pediadas (36 kms. from Herakleion). Kastelli is an attractive small town which owes its name to a Venetian castle which no longer exists.
At the entrance of the town was found a Roman cemetery. Further to the east, beyond the village ofXidias, lie the ruins
of ancient Lyttos or Lyktos, a strong town which was a rival of Knossos. Systematic excavations have not been carried out in this area. Lyttos was built on a naturally fortified site, at the foot of Mount Dicte - to which is owes its surname of Dictaea - and, for this reason, was not walled.

Although it was a very ancient city -
as has been established - it attained its
acme in historic times. In 220 BC it was
destroyed by its rival, Knossos, with the
help of the powerful city of Gortyn.

As an autonomous city, Lyttos minted
its own coins and, during Roman times,
it acquired great fame. It had an aque-
duct, an acropolis, a theatre and statues of Roman emperors adorning various sites. Today these statues are kept
in the Archaeological Museum of Herakleion.

We return to Kastelli and, approximately one kilometre further on, we turn left and, driving southwestwards, we pass through Thrapsano, the village of the potters, as it was called by the Turks, since most of its inhabitants were potters and created jars for storing agricultural products.

To the east of the village is the church of
Kato Panaghia or Panaghia Pigadiotissa.

The road continues towards the north-
west. We take the right fork before the
village ofAghies Paraskies, to stop for a
while at Myrtia or Varvaroi. Here, on
the village square, in a recently restored house owned by the Kazantzakis and
Anemoyiannis families, is housed the
Nikos Kazantzakis Museum, where one can see personal objects and manuscripts belonging to the writer, all the editions of his works, stage scenery and costumes from performances of representative plays and an informative audio - visual programme. (For information: tel. 081/742.451 and 741.689).

(Shorter route to the village of Myrtia
from Herakleion through Knossos and
Skalani).

We descend, in a southwesterly direction, towards Aghies Paraskies, Aghios
Vassilios and Houdetsi. Five hundred
metres beyond Houdetsi the road towards the north leads to Vathypetros
and Epano Archanes. We follow the
road to the south and after 5.5 kms. a
road to the right (3 kms.) brings us to
the Aghios Georgios Apanosiphi monastery. It is believed to have been built around 1600 and it amassed a great
amount of wealth from the donations of
Venetian feudal lords.

During the Turkish occupation it was
an important cultural centre where many churchmen were educated; at the same time it was a refuge for Cretan freedom fighters.

sumptuously bound copies of the New
Testament, chalices, ciboria, crosses,
sacerdotal vestments etc.
As we take the road back again and before we reach Houdetsi, we turn left for
Vathypetro and Archanes.
(N.B. The road between Houdetsi and
Vathypetro is a dirt road.) From there
we continue northwards towards Patsides, Knossos, Herakleion.
(For a shorter road to Archanes, 15
kms, and Vathypetro - 20 kms. - take
the Herakleion - Knossos road. See
route 2).

At Piso Livadia, on the southeastern
flank of the Juktas mountain, the Minoan palace of Vathypetro was found (excavated in 1949 by Professor Spyros
Marinates).

Visit of Vathypetro

The Palace is a large building, parts of
which are two storeys high, The walls
are covered with polychrome plaster
and there are no paintings. It is be-
lieved to have been built around 1600
EC, to have been destroyed and aban-
doned around 1500 BC while, later, its
south side was repaired.

In the palace were found and restored
an olive press and a wine press, finds
which led archaeologists to the conclusion that this must have been a farmhouse. Weaving implements and potters' wheels were also discovered here.

The palace has a central court, a pillared room with four square columns, a
storeroom containing sixteen jars and a
sanctuary. One of the most important
moveable finds was a large decorated
amphora for carrying oil.

Three kilometres away, to the north of
Vathypetro, is the lovely little town of
Epano Archanes, situated in a fertile
and well irrigated region, amid luxuriant vegetation and many vineyards. The town is reputed for its excellent wine and its raisins. This is where the ancient town ofAcharna was situated.

Two and a half kilometres further north is the community of Kato Archanes.

Ancient Acharna was an important Minoan town which flourished between 2500 and 1400 BC. The excavations which were begun in 1964 by the archaeologists Yiannis and Effie Sakellaraki, are still being carried on today.
The areas that have been excavated are: part of a Minoan palace, a cemetery at Fourni and a Minoan temple at the site of Anemospilia.
In this area, the archaeologists Spyros
Marinates and N. Platon also located a
building of the early Hellenic period, as
well as other buildings dating from
Greco-Roman times.

Ruins of buildings around its northern
entrance have been uncovered, as has a
section of the eastern wing.

The Minoan cemetery

It lies on Fourni hill (1.5 kms. to the
southwest of Pano Archarnes) and is
considered the most important and
most extensive prehistoric cemetery in
the Aegean.

It was used between 2500 and 1250 BC,
approximately. The funeral gifts which
were found here are extremely rich and
valuable and most of them are kept in
the Herakleion Archaeological Museum.
They include several small objects in
gold, bronze and ivory, masterpieces of
design and workmanship, which were
found in a sarcophagus. It was the first
royal tomb in Crete to have been found
intact. In other tombs were found gold
and silver jewellery, finely worked
seals, figurines, pots etc.

The Minoan temple at Anemospylia

(5 kms, southwest of Archanes). This is
a sanctuary in three sections with a
long corridor built, as was the palace, of
hewn stone, and surrounded by an en-
closed courtyard. It was probably de-
stroyed by an earthquake, at the same
time as the Minoan palaces of Crete, in
1700 BC.

In the sanctuary were found ritual
utensils, an offering table, an altar, a
large stone basin, jars, two life-size clay
feet, probably belonging to some statue
that was an object of worship. The most
important and most discussed find of
the sanctuary, however, was the four
human skeletons, one of which had a
bronze sword on its breast, which led
archaeologists to conjecture that these
had been victims of ritual sacrifice.