Gorges of Crete

Imbros Gorge

The Imbros Gorge can be located on the south road route towards Hora Sfakion. It is possible to walk through the natural beauty of the Imbros Gorge in about 2 - 2 ½ hours from start to finish. You would begin your walk from the village of Imbros and head on until the end of the gorge coming out at Komitades.

It is an approximately 8 km long walk over old paved roads, having once been the connection between the north and south coast. The gorge is festooned with a richness of cypress trees and bushes and trimmed with bare cliff faces.

As you ramble along through the snake like gorge, in some points it is so narrow that you can almost touch both walls with your arms out-stetched.

Samaria Gorge

The Samaria National Park has become accustomed to opening to the public at the beginning of May through to the end of October. It is situated on the west of Crete within the White Mountains. The Department of Forestry makes all possible efforts to open earlier and the crossing of the Samaria gorge is generally possible from the middle of April, provided there is no heavy rain as high waters make the gorge impassable and therefore very dangerous. Also rock falls after rains are very likely to occur therefore high consideration is needed when judging whether the gorge should be officailly open or not.

In the past there have been a few myths about the Samaria Gorge, one of which it is said that the gorge is 18 kms long when in fact it is actually 16 kms long. The 18 kms refers the the distance measured between the settlement of Omalos at the top of the gorge and the village of Agia Roumeli which is located at the very end of the Samaria. Although the gorge walk through the National Park is 13 kms, the extra 3 kms is necessary to connect you with the village, where later the boat departs from to re-connect you back to civilization. The gorge starts at an altitude of 1250 m and takes you all the way to Agia Roumeli which hugs the shores of the Libyan sea where you will be able to find refreshments amongst the local tasty tavernas.

The very narrow passage towards the end of the gorge is known as "The Iron Gates", nobody seems to know why or how it got this name as they were always known as "Portes" which means "Gates" or "Doors". But never had any iron been discovered anywhere at all.

The Samaria Gorge is said to be the longest natural gorge in Europe, however, seemingly the "Gorge Du Verdon" in South France is said to be 20 kms in length. Closer to home than that though running west along side the Samaria is the Tripiti Gorge said almost to be as long but not many people know about it.

Yiannis Katsouras

Olympios Construction & Estate Agency

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