Before Portes some fascinating black layers of stone are visible, called The Arabic Characters after their shapes.
About 500 m higher stands Mitsos' café with a formidable view over the gorge.
|
Sights - Chania County |
|
|
Imbros gorge |
| The Imbros gorge begins after
the village of Imbros, the southernmost village on the Askyfou plateau.
There are two ways down into the gorge: one in the village and one about 1˝
km further on. If you descend from the village you must be prepared for
walking some distance through a quite flat ground.
|
|
|||
|
|
|
||
|
|
||||
| The Imbros gorge winds seven kilometres through high vertical cliffs which in several places give the impression of having been created by a break of the earth's crust. In fact this is partly the case as the theory is that it has originally been formed by a sideways fault which were afterwards influenced by the streams of water. |
|
|||
|
|
||||
|
|
|
||
|
|
||||
|
Until the 1920ies the gorge was the only passage between the Askyfou plateau and the south coast, and in several places the old paved path (kalderimi) is still visible. |
|
||
|
|
||||
| During the 1920ies the present road was built high up along the cliff and the gorge lost its significance as a path - apart from a short period during World War II, when the Germans blew up the road which was, however, quickly reconstructed. |
|
|||
|
|
||||
|
In the narrowest place, Portes, the gorge is so narrow that donkeys could not pass through with their load which was often carried in two big baskets on each side of the animal. The donkey driver had to unload all the things, carry them through the narrow passage and finally put them back onto the animal before he could continue his journey. |
|
||
|
|
||||
|
Before Portes some fascinating black layers of stone are visible, called The Arabic Characters after their shapes. |
|
|||
|
|
||||
|
After Portes the gorge-keeper has his hut next to an old Venetian cistern. | |||
|
About 500 m higher stands Mitsos' café with a formidable view over the gorge. |
|
|||
|
|
||||
|
|
|
||
|
|
||||
| After having passed a big landslide to the left you come to a big detached rock called Xepitira, in the shape of a huge Gothic arch. |
|
|||
|
After this the gorge becomes broader and takes the shape of a riverbed with many pebbles until it opens into the village of Komitades. | |||
|
|
||||
|
|
|
||
|
|