Photos of Zakros Gorge

Ano Zakros, a large village in East Crete, 38 kilometres south of Sitia. Here we start our hike to the Gorge of the Dead or Zakros Gorge.
An old traditional house in Zakros, its yard full of flowers. If you have time, walk around the narrow village streets to discover its pretty sights.
We leave Zakros and walk along the road to Kato Zakros and its beach. We’ve decided to enter the gorge by the second entrance, 4 kilometres from Ano Zakros.
It’s mid-February and the whole of Crete is covered in a thick carpet of grass and yellow Bermuda buttercups, while olive trees are found almost everywhere on the island.
In Crete the winters are mild and become milder the further east and south go you. Many wildflowers like this anemone bloom from late January onwards.

This signpost is located at the point where we leave the tarmac road to enter Zakros Gorge. Don’t follow the dirt track behind the signpost, but the first one next to the bus shelter.
Having walked along a dirt track for a while, we come to Zakros Gorge and start climbing down.
The path is clear and there’s no danger of getting lost.
The descent takes about 10 minutes. The slope is steep and you have to be careful not to slip on the stones.

The first hikers from our group have reached the bottom of the gorge and are waiting for the rest to catch up.
Above us rise the sheer sides of the gorge where vultures and hawks nest. Vultures are called “skares” in East Crete.
In the steep cliffs of the gorge are many caves, to which the ancient inhabitants of Zakros would laboriously raise their dead to bury them. This is why the gorge is known as the “Gorge of the Dead”.
In winter the water level in the gorge depends on recent rainfall. In summer, however, the riverbed is dry, making walking easier.
Small waterfalls form in places, tiny but beautiful.

There are no crossings from one bank to the other. You have to improvise by jumping from stone to stone.
A borrowed baton in one hand and a stick in the other, Maria tries to cross the river without wetting her shoes.
The crossing over, there follows a bright grin of success.
The vegetation in Zakros Gorge is so dense you can’t leave the path.
In some places you may need to scramble over a rock, but it’s not too difficult.

After the first kilometre, the path becomes easier and in some places you walk in the shade of the trees, a great relief in the hot summer months.
Sophia with her pretty rucksack is only 11 years old, but she walks easily and sure-footedly along the path.
A strange plant attracts our attention. In Crete it’s called “ta stivania tou lagou”, or “hare’s boots”, because it looks a bit like hare fur. Its Latin name is Aristolochia cretica (Cretan Birthwort), endemic to Crete and Karpathos.
No, it’s not an ancient Minoan throne hidden in the bushes. If I remember right, it’s a stone fountain at a rest area in the gorge. We saw others too, but they were all dry.
The entrance to the gorge from Kato Zakros. We walked down it from Ano Zakros to Kato Zakros, but you can also go the other way.

The river widens near Kato Zakros and flows more slowly.
Here the footpath ends, giving way to the dirt track to Kato Zakros and its beach.
Map of the footpaths in Zakros area.
A small flock of sheep in the fields around Kato Zakros, a common Cretan picture
An old olive tree which somehow seems to have split into four different boles. The older the olive tree, the stranger the shape of its trunk.

The Kato Zakros archaeological site with the Minoan Palace of Zakros, which is much smaller than Knossos or Phaistos, but whose excavation produced many important finds.
The rainwater has formed little pools in the archaeological site.
All the hikers gather in the only taverna in Kato Zakros which is open in the winter. They are members of the “Friends of the Mountain and Sea” climbing club from Heraklion
Straw umbrellas waiting to offer their shade to summer tourists on the beach of Kato Zakros
Leaving wintery Zakros behind us, we board the coach to return to Sitia.

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The hike down Zakros Gorge or “Gorge of the Dead” took place in February 2010 with the “Friends of the Mountain and Sea” climbing club from Heraklion.

The conditions were wintery with quite a bit of water in the gorge, making walking difficult. It’s definitely much easier to cross the gorge in summer, when the riverbed is dry.

Photos Zakros Gorge

Photos of Zakros Gorge