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Chania – Cape Kydonias – Profitis Ilias hill – Holy Trinity Monastery – Gouverneto Monastery – Lake Kourna – Rethymno – Part 2

Off the main road to Rethymno, we can visit the village of Malaxa, in a panoramic position at an altitude of 500m. There is a fine gorge and a cave.

Nearby is ancient Aptera: the name of the city (‘wingless ones’) is attributed by the myths to the Sirens, who, having been defeated in a musical contest by the Muses, plucked off their wings and feathers in a grief and, pale and bare, plunged into the sea where they formed the islets called Lefkes in the mouth of Souda Bay.

There are ruins of an early first-century BC temple where Demeter and Kore were probably the deities worshiped. Huge Roman cisterns and imposing ‘Cyclopean’ walls have survived in good condition, and there are traces of a theatre.

If we continue along the main road, we will pass through Megala Chorafia and the little village of Kalami before reaching a possible stopping point in the seaside settlement of Kalyves.

We can visit the ruins of the Venetian fortress of Apicorno, which gave its name to the sub prefecture of Apokoronou. We carry on through Almyrida, Gavalochori (with numerous churches and chapels) and Vamos, chief town of the sub prefecture of Apokoronou. The town is the most important administrative and commercial centre in the vicinity, and took its name from the Arabic word ‘vamos’, meaning passage or crossing.

Now we come to Yergioupoli, a coastal town behind which is the Armyros plain. Its position by the sea gave the town its old name of Armyros (‘salty’) or Armyroupoli, but it was later named Yergioupoli in the honor of Prince George, High Commissioner of Crete.

All the bustle of the tourist trade centers on the square with its towering eucalyptus trees, the seafront and the little harbor where the Almyros River runs into the sea.

Among the nearby sights is Lake Kourma, the only lake on Crete, set in a landscape which is very relaxing on the eye. A cave by the same name is to the south of the lake. We can climb up to the village of Kourma on the slopes of Dafnomadara Mountain.

We return to the main road; through Yergioupoli we can drive on to Vryses, and from there turn south for Chora Sfakion or continue our trip into the Prefecture of Rethymno.