Discover how hospitable and enchanting the wild lanscape of the high mountains can be, by exploring the sky-city of Karphi, as well as the ancient settlements in Mikri Koprana and Megali Koprana and other sites dating around 1200 BC. Why did people settle on the mountain edges? How does it feel to be an islander that sees the sea from the highlands?
Our experienced archaeologist will guide you in the last paths of the Minoan and the Mycenaean civilization in a lovely trek though a beautiful ancient path on Lassithi mountains. The trip includes a Cretan picnic in nature.
After the decline of the Minoan and Mycenaean civilization on Crete, the island has experienced dramatic upheavals, during the centuries of turning from the 2nd to the 1st millennium BC. The disorganization of the “palatial system” and the advent of new populations on the island, led many people to seek refuge in the mountains, organizing new defense settlements in the most inaccessible rocky areas. These edge mountain villages are some of the most impressive residential cases in the history of Crete. They represent the dynamics of the Cretan landscape even in such inhospitable and remote places, while at the same time they show an unexpected lifeline offered by the high Cretan mountains.
The travelers of PETASSOS, through the series “SKY – SITIES” will have the opportunity to visit a number of these defensive mountain settlements that marked the history of the island. The settlement of Karphi (means the “Nail” for the form of the distinguished limestone rock) of Lassithi mountains is the most typical case: It is the first settlement of that kind which has been excavated systematically and to such an extent. In their daily lives, the highlanders of the Cretan “Nail” (Karfi) had been viewing a Crete almost unknown to other islanders...
Trek: Easy, 2-3 hours, in an easy rocky terrain.
