The village of Afrata on the Rodopos Peninsula - Crete

Afrata is a small village on the Rodopos peninsula in the northwest of the island of Crete, 28 kilometers west of Chania. It lies at a 160 meters altitude just above the larger village of Kolimbari that is about 4 kilometers away. The village overlooks a gorge. You can reach Afrata if you drive up the mountain in Kolimbari into the direction and along the 17th century monastery of Gonia. In the village of Afrata there is a "fork" in the road. The normal road with asphalt runs to the village Astratigos and the exit on the right is a narrow road that goest to the small beach of Afrata. The beach is at one and a half kilometers distance from the village and there is a taverna. There are also sun beds and umbrellas for rent.

The whole peninsula of Rodopos is reasonably quiet and still fairly undiscovered. Many of the maps still don't have the roads marked well and so you might think it is all dirt tracks not suitable for your car but instead there are also a lot of narrow asphalt roads. This is why many people still avoid this part of the island. In Afrata itself there are a small number of accommodations available. The area is popular with walkers and cyclists.

From Afrata there is a path leading to the extreme north where you can see the Diktynna Sanctuary. On the way you will pass the Ellinospilos cave which was already inhabited in prehistoric times. The sanctuary in the north of the Rodopos peninsula was dedicated to the daughter of Zeus. The myth tells that she had to escape from King Minos and jumped into the sea at this spot. Fishermen supposedly picked her up in their nets and brought her to the island Aegina, where she was honoured as a Godess. The people of Crete called her Diktynna (which means "net"). The first sanctuary dates from 700 BC and as good as nothing is left of it. Two centuries later the sanctuary was rebuilt. During the Roman period emperor Hadrianus had it enlarged. During the later centuries a lot of the buildings disappeared, mostly by people that wanted the stones to build their own houses. The Roman temple was surrounded bij columns. Places where water was saved have also been found. Statues of the Roman emperor and of the godess that have been found here can be seen in the Museum of Chania. The walk to the sanctuary over the coastal road is long and tiring and is better not made when it is too hot. The option is to go to the Dyktinna sanctuary by boat from the nearby village of Kolimbari.