Paul Faure Cave
The Paul Faure cave of Rethymno prefecture is located at an altitude of 700 meters northeast of the village Nithavris in the Kalikas region.
With height up to 20 meters and its many names (ONYMAXOC, Notiki Tripa, Kalika Tripa), the Paul Faure cave had been inhabited since the antiquity and, initially, it was a sacred cave of some Minoan settlement.
During the Ottoman rule, hainides (local partisans) and chieftains Tsoupogiannis (Giannis Tsoupakis) and Lantzouromarkos (Markos Lantzourakis), with a prize on their heads by the Turks for the revolutionary activity, had found refuge here. In the same cave the rebels hid the German General Kraipe, since after his abduction in Heraklio, he was brought here until his final evacuation to Africa.
In 2006, the Department of West Crete of the Hellenic Speleological Society decided to rename this cave to Paul Faure cave (in Greek Pavlos Forakis) in honor of the famous French Philhellene archaeologist.
In the center of the first underground hall, there is a huge stalagmite column that probably was used as a cult figure, since shells dating back to the 2nd millennium BC until Roman times were found on the ground around it.
From the main hall of the Paul Faure cave two impassable tunnels begin, the first descending towards the northwest and the second east.
