Rethymno - Small Islands

Nature of the Rethymno prefecture is a synonym to indescribable beauty, in a landscape of high rocks changing into lacy beaches and the legendary caves meeting wide gorges with dense flora, waterfalls and ancient trees. The Ideon Andron cave and the Sfentoni cave are not only great caves, but also ancient history keepers.

The wealth of county’s nature is very well presented by Psiloritis with its landscapes changing one another. Psiloritis is located in the East part of the prefecture, which is the most mountainous parts of Crete. Next to Psiloritis you will find Vrisinas, the mountain with numerous founts.

The Nida plateau with its famous “mitata” (structures in countryside used by shepherds), in winter, offers the possibility to indulge in winter sports thanks to the available infrastructure.

Rivers penetrating deep into the mountains and flowing to the Libyan Sea, such as Kourtaliotis and Platis River, fertile valleys, such as the Amari valley, are areas of protected fauna and flora, where, rarely seen elsewhere, nature thrives.

The River Dam is expected to become an important reserved wetland of the Mediterranean. It is where Sifis, the famous crocodile found in the area in 2014 and big headline news in the media, already lives.

Lots of small mammals are surviving in the wild nature of Rethymno, such as the Cretan badger, weasel and marten, while the reappearance of the wildcat, species considered extinct, in recent years, makes the area very attractive to the scientists.

The viper and the Balkan wood snake, which are usually found in the trees and between the stones, along with Green lizard, a rare lizard, a tiny Cretan Tree Frogs and toads, complete the fauna that thrives in the mountains.

The north sandy beaches are currently protected and repeatedly awarded. It is where the famous sea turtle Careta-careta appears and gives birth

Sparrows, goldfinches, swallows, finches, robins, jackdaws, blackbirds and crows can be frequently seen in the fields, while on higher grounds kestrels and buzzards, lammergeyers and vultures open their wings.

Cretan marjoram is another kind of herb in Cretan nature, known since antiquity, from the Greek mythology. It was a plant dedicated to the goddess of hunting, Artemis, and had been associated with easing of birth pains. According to the myth, the goddess would shoot a bow with poison arrows and then healed the wounds, just like the marjoram. Since ancient times, the plant was a panacea for many sicknesses. It was used to heal stomach and general digestive system illnesses, spleen, rheumatism, arthritis, diseases of the uterus and difficult births.