DK Travel : Crete : Western Crete : Best of the Rest

Top 10 Best of the Rest

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1. Anogeia

Pleasant cafés and shops conceal Anogeia’s embattled past, when it was a hotbed of resistance against the Turks, who sacked it in 1821 and 1826, and the Germans, who levelled it in 1944.
2. Chora Sfakion

A major rendezvous point for excursion groups who arrive by boat having walked the Samaria Gorge. Once they have found their coaches, the town returns to its pleasant slumber.
3. Archaia Eleftherna

Founded in 700 BC, ancient Eleftherna was a powerful Dorian city. Having vanished from history, it is now being rediscovered by archaeologists.
4. Polyrinia

Wonderful views surround the broken walls and foundations of this ancient Acropolis, upon which stands an equally ruined Venetian fortress (see Venetian Acropolis and Polyrinia).
5. Monastery of Agia Irini

This restored 14th-century monastery is now a nunnery and also a centre for traditional weaving and needlework.
6. Aptera

A Byzantine town built on the site of a Hellenistic city, remains here include Roman cisterns, Byzantine foundations, a Venetian monastery and a Turkish fort.
7. Gramvoussa Peninsula

The remote and barely populated Gramvoussa Peninsula has one of Crete’s best beaches at Falasarna, where there are also the scattered remains of a Hellenistic city.
8. Rodopou Peninsula

A barren peninsula that attracted the Orthodox monks who built the monastery of Moni Gonia, which has several fine icons.
9. Akrotiri Peninsula

Monks have been drawn to Crete’s peninsulas – Akrotiri’s best monasteries are the abandoned Moni Katholikou and the Venetian Moni Gouverneto (see Moni Gouverneto).
10. War Cemetery

The burial place of more than 1,500 Allied soldiers who died during the Battle of Crete, in May 1941.