Caves, springs, fractures and fossils: discover the long history under the visible landscape.
An island with a deep history
The eastern landscape consists of several rock packages. Limestone, marble and shale do not tell the same story. In the Sitia Geopark, older rocks lie next to younger sediments; fractures and movements complicate the structure than a simple pile.
Think in three questions: where was a rock formed, how did it change, and how did it come to its present place? A sieving fossil high above the sea can point to a former marine environment, but not to one simple indicative flood. The explanation requires dating and geological context.
Water can penetrate through cracks and dissolve limestone, so small openings can become part of a larger underground system. A cave is at the same time a geological form and sometimes an archaeological archive or habitat.
The geopark therefore stresses the protection of geosites and caves. Do not automatically include a non-tourist cave as a visitor stop. The guide uses caves as a subject of study; accessible locations and visit conditions require local information. View form and context from a permitted place and leave deposits and finds intact.
A source is a place where underground water comes to the surface, and the journey of that water is usually not visible, so passing rocks, less permeable layers and fractures can influence the flow, so the water catchment area does not always coincide with the valley that you see above the ground.
Compare Zakros on the map with the coast at Kato Zakros. Make a sketch with source, valley and ending. Draw what you know by observing with a full line and what you only suspect with a dotted line. Your drawing will remain a research question instead of a fabricated underground map.
Crete must be understood in the geological development of the southern Aegean region. Slow distortion of the earth's crust and sudden earthquakes are part of different time scales of the same dynamic landscape. The Natural History Museum offers educational explanation about this.
A crack in an old building does not prove a historical earthquake in itself. Dating, building history and other traces must be looked at together. The same goes for explaining the destruction of a settlement: one dramatic cause is attractive, but requires more evidence than a striking debris surface.
At Kato Zakros coastal terraces are described at different heights. Such former coastal forms show that the relationship between land and sea changed. Removal and changes in sea level need to be looked at together.
Make the difference between a former seabed and a drowned settlement explicit. Not every terrace is a port, and not every underwater block is a human wall. Use the coastal forms as a reason to compare scale and time, not to designate a sunken city without a source.
At Kato Zakros, the geopark describes fossil remains of dwarf hippos and deer. These findings are part of a very different ecological history than the animals that a visitor sees today. Isolation on islands can influence evolutionary pathways; however, one fossil does not immediately tell how large a full population was.
In the Natural History Museum you can compare fossils and reconstructions. Note what is real material and what is additionally modeled. Write the three words bone, reconstruction and interpretation in a drawing: this way you keep visible which parts were found immediately.
Choose one known spot from the atlas. Note five visible features: colour, layering, grain size, cracks and location. Add a photo to your travel book and write down any questions you have left. A good note does not need to give a definitive name or explanation.
Then compare your perception with the Nature & landscape guide and the geopark resources. Do not take anything with you to keep a memory: a place, date and sharp question make your travel book valuable.
Pachnes, Omalos, Askifou and the gorges to the sea. An extensive guide about landscape, nature, shepherd culture and visit planning, with regional map.