The ferry times to and from Milos are not at all convenient. I left at around 2pm and arrived on the the next island at 7pm, checked into my hostel, grabbed dinner, and got ready to explore the next morning. Now, welcome to Chania on Greece’s biggest island of Crete. I’m starting my exploration of Crete on a Sunday, everything is usually closed on Tuesdays, and it’s Christmas week, so I’m making a mad dash to all of the places that will likely be closed in the upcoming days. I started at Chania’s really great Archeology Museum.

Chania has been inhabited for about 6000 years. The first major civilization that established itself though, is the Minoans, from about 3000-1100BC. That’s going back a long way! Most of these artifacts were found at the many archeology sites right here in the city. Above is a dude playing a lyre for some birds.

Below is a depiction of a city with a large temple in the center and possibly a god(?) standing on top of the temple. It’s believed to be a city seal of some kind. The seal and the pot with the lyre player are probably the two most famous finds from the area.

It’s weird thinking that the ancient Greek finds are the latter period, but here we are. This amazing mosaic of Dionysus and Ariadne was found somewhere in town while digging the foundation for a modern building. Even on Crete, you can’t dig anywhere without finding some sort of ancient awesomeness.

The marble Apollo and bronze Artemis were found in what was just an ordinary house. It was very common for people to have smaller statues decorating their houses. They’re in really good shape for how old they are.

The Archeology Museum is at the far east end of town so I got some great views of the “old town” on my walk back.

Now it’s time to start exploring the old town. First though, the Church of St Nicholas looks like it’s been through a lot. It looks like a vase that broke and was glued back together with pieces from a set of dishes you never used. Apparently, it was a church, a monastery, a mosque, a military barracks, now it’s a basilica, and by the looks of it a part time carport.

Chania’s been inhabited since around 4000BC, so of course there’s pieces from every era of history. It was a very important Venetian port during their time here. As a result, most of the harbor fortifications were built by them and are still here.

Guarding the land side of the city, however, are the old Byzantine walls. There are pieces of them kind of all over.

Right in the center of the old town are the ruins of the Minoan city of Kydonia. There are little sections of ruins scattered all over this part of town, but this is the biggest and most significant section. Most of this was probably built starting around the 17th century BC, and they know it was largely destroyed in what must of been an epic fire in 1450BC.

The center of all the action in Chania is the old Venetian Port. There’s an interesting mix of old Venetian buildings along with the new stuff. There’s also a lot of good seafood restaurants down here. Yummm!

I also rented a car here in Crete since there’s a lot of cool sites laying around. The first was just a short distance to the east, Ancient Aptera. There’s a pretty good mix of eras here too. The most recent structure is the Monastery of St John the Theologian. The monastery goes back as far as the 12th century AD, though this building was built in the 16th or 17th century.

I have no idea what this big round thing is, but it looks neat.

Probably the most impressive ruins at the site are the Roman Cisterns from the 1st and 2nd century AD. Above is the L shaped cistern at the entrance. But the three domed cistern further down was really awesome. I was able to climb in a bit and get some pictures from the inside.

Actually, most all of the ruins at Aptera were Roman. Right between the cisterns was a huge bath complex.

Finally I came to the ancient Theatre of Aptera. It’s one of the newest and smallest theatre’s I’ve visited, but it’s still pretty impressive. It was originally built in the 3rd century BC, but most of what you see today was done by the Romans. Also, it was only just excavated in 2008. Before that it was pretty much buried.

As I was admiring the theatre it decided to rain, but only over Aptera. I could see blue skies in every direction except overhead. Luckily, I was about done. I took a look at the Roman house with the big courtyard and then jumped in the car for cover.

After that I drove to the edge of the mountain to check out the Ottoman castle I spotted from Aptera. The rain was still falling, but it didn’t matter since it was after closing anyway. It’s pretty impressive though. And from the hill I could see down to the Itzentin Castle, which I already knew was permanently closed, but there it is.

Most of the cities on Crete are on the north side of the island, at least the major cities are, and there’s not much going on in the remote south side. There is at least one cool site down there though. Time for some hiking and goat watching. I caught these two below right before the big head butt.

I drove all the way to the tiny village of Sougia to start this next hike. From there it’s through the Patsos Gorge and then up and over the mountains.

Do you ever feel like you’re being watched? So many goats!

Once I got to the top I could see my final destination, Lissos. This southern coastline turned out to be just stunning.

At the bottom is more than just a beach and a beautiful coastline. The ancient settlement of Lissos, established sometime between the 5th and 3rd century BC was aligned with the kingdom of Cyrene. It was best known in the ancient world as a healing center with a prominent Temple of Asclepius, seen below. This is where that Asclepius statue from the Archeology Museum was found. And I was very pleasantly surprised to see that mosaic inside the temple. Awesome!

This site is so remote and since the only way to get to it is by hiking or chartering a boat, there’s no fence or locked gates or opening hours. Yay! Lissos was pretty much done after a giant earthquake in 365AD. Obviously it continued to be inhabited though because there are a couple of 14th century churches here. The Church of Sts Cyricus and Jullita had some unexpected frescoes inside.

The Odeon was the only part of the site that was fenced off, but I got some good pics through the fence.

The hillside is covered in tombs which were fun to explore, and of course, goats. Lots and lots of goats. I even spotted one in a tree.

What an idyllic spot! I think most people visit this site in the summer by boat, but today, it’s just me and a thousand goats. Also, from here I’m just as close to Africa as I am the European mainland. If you get in that water and swim straight out for about 200 miles you’ll find yourself on a beach in Libya.

This was such an awesome hike. I just wish the goats weren’t so shy.

On my way out of Chania I made a stop at the ancient Minoan vaulted tomb near the village of Stilos. No idea who was buried here, but it was sometime in the 14th or 13th century BC.

I had also planned on a big hike near Aradena Gorge. I grossly underestimated the drive out here though. So much twisting and turning and goat dodging that by the time I arrived I realized I wouldn’t have enough daylight to do the whole hike. On the way there I drove across this scary metal bridge with wooden planks over the Gorge. You don’t notice the broken wooden planks while driving, but when you walk over the bridge, they scream at you, “Look at me, I’m broken haha!” At least I get to drive over it a second time on the way back.

As for the hike, I was supposed to go all the way down to the beach, but sure to the time I decided to turn around at the cliffs. Luckily, the amazing views lessened my disappointment a bit. Check out that ridiculous road I had to drive in the second pic.

That’s it for Chania, but Crete is a big island. I’ll be making a few stops on this one, so stay tuned…