Luckily this valley isn’t called Valley of the Death because of so many dead hikers but because of the caves the Minoans had used to bury their dead. This valley with its imposing walls of about 200 metres height is also a part of the E4, the longest of all European long-distance hiking trails. From here, the E4 continues on Cyprus, which is the eastern end.
We had dropped our camper again just next to the road at the village of Zakros, from where we started down into the valley.
There are 2 entrance points, each has a parking, but we had started already from the village of Zakros and used the entrance A to walk down the entire valley until the coast.
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| Water channel replaced by black pipes |
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| Red rocks as great contrast to the oleander bushes of the valley |
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| Caves used as burial sites by the Minoans more than 3500 years ago |
Finally, we reached the coast where the archaeological site of the Minoan town lies. Along the beach, a couple of tavernas wait for hungry hikers, but not at this time of the year. Everything was closed, but one little place owned by a Scottish lady, where we had lunch before hiking up on the “Old Road” leading along the valley over the mountains.
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| View back into the valley |
In hindsight, we would have preferred to park the car at the beach of Kato Zakros and walked up through the valley to the exit A and from there stroll down over the Old Road. But maybe it is just us who prefer to walk up first 😉
Afterwards, we drove further south and found a beautiful beach at Xerocambos, where nobody minded us parking there for the night.
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| Monk’s pepper |