DK Travel : Crete : Places of interest

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Mt Idi

At 2,456 m (8,055 ft), Mt Idi, which is also known as Mt Ida and Mt Psiloritis, is Crete’s highest mountain. Only fit, experienced and well-equipped mountain walkers should try the eighthour hike to its summit and back. However, it is possible to drive as far as the Nida Plateau, 1,400 m (4,600 ft) above sea level, from which there are spectacular views.
Nerantzes Mosque

At the north end of Ethnikis Antistasis is the Nerantzes Mosque, the town’s best preserved Ottoman relic. It is now a music school and concert hall, and its slender, pointed minaret, which has been closed for restoration, is due to reopen in 2003. If it is open, clamber up the winding stairs to the parapet for the best view of the old town, harbour, fortress and mountains to the south of Rethymno.
Paleochora

Paleochora stands on a peninsula between two beaches: a long sandy bay to the northwest and an even longer, but pebblier and more exposed beach, to the southeast. Close to the centre of the village are the ruined walls of a Venetian fort, Castel Selino, which was built to guard the harbour and coast but left to crumble after the Turkish conquest. “Discovered” by backpackers in the 1970s, Paleochora is now one of Crete’s quieter resorts, with a low-key nightlife and a family atmosphere.
Phaestos

This labyrinth of ruins dating from around 1600 BC includes a Minoan courtyard and theatre with tiers of stone seats, a monumental stairway, peristyle hall and a vast central courtyard. The still undeciphered Phaestos Disc, which was discovered here, is on display in the Irakleio Archaeological Museum (see Irakleio Archaeological Museum). Phaestos was destroyed around 1450 BC by the cataclysm that also laid low the rest of Crete’s Minoan palaces. Not usually as crowded as the more famous Knosos, the site at Phaestos has an impressive location on a hillside above fertile farmland (see Phaestos).
Plakias

Plakias is one of Crete’s newer resorts. Its excellent beaches were overlooked by the holiday industry until the 1990s, at which point, the tiny fishing and farming community began to transform into a strip of purposebuilt hotels (none of them obtrusively large), apartments, shops and restaurants. Not for those looking for authenticity, Plakias nevertheless has plenty going for it, including attractive surrounding countryside, its own long sweep of shingly sand, and lots more even prettier beaches and palm-fringed coves within walking distance.
Plateia Venizelou

Leave Plateia Ekaterinis by its northwest corner, and walk east to Plateia Nikoforou Foka, then left to Plateia Venizelou. The Morosini fountain stands in the middle of the square, with two stone lions standing sentinel.
Porta Guora

Make an early start at Plateia Tessaron Martyron, the large square from which the Venetian Porta Guora – the only intact remnant of the Venetian city walls – leads into the old town. The Tessaron Martyron (Four Martyrs) Church at the northeast corner of the square honours four Cretans executed in 1824 by the Turks for remaining secretly Christian despite an apparent conversion to Islam. A pointed minaret by the church is all that is left of one of the city’s Turkish mosques.
Porta Kenouria

The most appropriate place to start exploring Irakleio’s Venetian heritage is this ornate archway through the city’s mighty walls, built in the mid-16th century by the Italian military engineer Michele Sanmichele. At this point, the walls are some 40 m (130 ft) thick, so it is not surprising that they withstood 16th-century Ottoman artillery and everything else thrown at them.
Praisos

From Kato Zakros, retrace your tracks as far as Ano Zakros, then drive for 18 km (11 miles) through the villages of Ziros and Chandras to the ancient site at Praisos (see Praisos).
Pumphouse and Fountain

Walk through the portal and along Evans, named after the excavator of ancient Knosos, to Plateia Kornarou, named after the writer of the Cretan epic poem the Erotokritos . In the middle of this square stands a pretty, six-sided stone building, a café set within a pumphouse built by the Turks. Stop here, if you like, for a coffee in the shade of plane trees. Beside the café is the Venetian Bembo Fountain – note the broken, decapitated marble torso of a Roman statue built into its stonework.