Heraklion South and East: Matala Hippie Cave Beach, Gortyna Roman Law Code Capital, Agios Nikolaos Elegant Lake Town, the Venetian Loggia Architecture, Ammoudara City Beach, and the 6-Day Crete Starting Circuit
The Heraklion south and east guide covers the 1960s counterculture Matala cliff caves, the oldest European law code at the Gortyna Roman inscription, the elegant Agios Nikolaos lake town gateway to Spinalonga, the Venetian Loggia and Morozini Fountain architectural layers, the Ammoudara city beach, and the complete 6-day Crete circuit from the Heraklion base.
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Matala: The Cave Village of the Hippies
Matala on the south Messara coast 70 kilometers south of Heraklion, the beach village whose red sandstone cliff caves were carved by the Romans as tombs and inhabited in the 1960s by the international hippie community including Joni Mitchell and Cat Stevens, is the most mythologized beach destination in Crete and the embodiment of the counterculture Mediterranean experience that preceded the package holiday economy. The Matala cave village is now a protected archaeological site but the beach retains the bohemian character that makes it the most distinctive social environment on the south Crete coast.
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Gortyna: The Roman Capital of Crete
Gortyna 45 kilometers south of Heraklion, the Roman provincial capital of Crete and Cyrene from 67 BC to the 4th century AD, contains the most important ancient inscription in the Greek world, the Gortyna Code of 450 BC inscribed on the limestone blocks of the Roman Odeion, the oldest law code of ancient Europe covering the family law, the inheritance, and the status of slaves and freemen in the most systematic legal text of the archaic Greek world. The site also contains the early Christian basilica of Agios Titos where the Apostle Titus is buried.
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Agios Nikolaos: The Elegant Eastern Town
Agios Nikolaos, the most elegant small town in Crete 65 kilometers east of Heraklion on the Mirabello Bay, is built around the unique Voulismeni Lake connected to the sea by a channel, with the lakeside restaurants, the small Archaeology Museum housing the Goddess of Myrtos figurine and the skull of Dionysus from Zakros, and the Elounda harbor nearby for the Spinalonga boat excursions. Agios Nikolaos is the base for the eastern Crete luxury hotel market centered on the Elounda Beach Hotel and the Blue Palace Resort.
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Heraklion Architecture: The Venetian Layers
The Heraklion architectural layers within the Venetian walls encompass the Loggia of 1628, the finest Venetian administrative building in Crete, the Morozini Fountain of 1628 in the Liontaria Square, the Venetian basilica of San Marco now serving as the Heraklion art exhibition hall, and the Ottoman-period Bembo Fountain at the Kornarou Square that incorporates the torso of a Roman statue as the central element, creating the most complex single-city architectural palimpsest in Crete.
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Heraklion Beaches: Ammoudara and the Coast
Ammoudara beach 5 kilometers west of Heraklion, the primary urban beach of the city and the most accessible sea bathing for the Heraklion resident population, serves the city's beach needs in a setting of the large resort hotels and the beachfront cafes. The beaches of the Heraklion eastern coast at Kokkini Hani, Karteros, and Gouves provide the resort beach environment for the package holiday market within 15 to 25 kilometers of the city center.
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Heraklion as Starting Point: The Crete Circuit
The optimal Crete circuit beginning in Heraklion covers the Knossos and the Archaeological Museum on the first day, the Phaistos and the Matala south coast on the second, the eastern Crete circuit of Agios Nikolaos, Elounda, and Spinalonga on the third, the Chania old town and the Venetian harbor on the fourth, and the Samaria Gorge descent and the Loutro beach on the fifth, returning to Heraklion for the departure on the sixth day. This 6-day circuit covers the essential Crete experience from the island's capital base.