milatos cave

One of the more accessible caves on crete , it has a well made if a little track way leading to its enterance, which has three openings to a quit extensive cave system with many chambers so smaller ones complete with bats. the history of this place is quite sad as it is were hundreds of inhabitants were massacred by the otterman forces, After invading many of local inhabitants fled to the cave to hide from Hassan Pasha's troops, who were approaching on a bloody war path, ruthlessly destroying villages and slaughtering their inhabitants. Upon discovering where the villagers were hiding, Pasha sent 5,000 troops to surround the cave. The 150 armed men, as well as Cretan rebel soldiers from surrounding villages, valiantly fought to defend the villagers and successfully held back Pasha's men for nearly two weeks. However, the lack of food and water was taking its toll, and many people died. Starvation forced the villagers to attempt a escape. Unarmed and weak, they stood no chance against Pasha's troops, and were brutally massacred. Many slaughtered or trampled to death as they attempted to flee from the cave. Those who were captured were later beheaded or burned to death. According to some sources, some of the captured women and children were sold into slavery. There now is a shrine just inside to mark this tragic event complete with bones collected after the event from the valley floor. It was also used by partisans during WW2 according to a very old local man we later met in a taverna. well worth a visit hope the extra info helps as there is no information at the site for the visitor

Having spent numerous holidays in Greece, basically not moving from the beach, I was in awe! Spent a week early October exploring caves, waterfalls and beautiful traditional villages in the mountains. Milatos cave must be my favourite one. After having a meal in a family tavern in nearby Kounali (a must go!) we left the car on road and walked to the cave. We were the only people there (visited early October) which was wonderful. The path leading to the cave is cute, the views amazing and all you can hear are goats’ bells. The cave is wonderfully spooky with a chapel at the end. It is not very high but it makes the whole experience exciting. A must go!

A nice ex pat english couple rent out torches to see the cave. Some degree of agility needed to get the best out of the cave. 5K from the Minos Imperial. Lovely drive by quad bike

Travelled by car, can be walked to from Milatos if its cloudy!!! The path to the cave from the road is a little lumpy the cave is very dark and quite deep, a torch is definitely needed, inside the cave the floor is very uneven with some rather large hollows, small chapel in there too. Weve been nothing to write home about!!!!

Stunning views of the surrounding area, and very interesting to see the small church in the inside, to which the locals make an annual pilgrimage. Call in to Kohili in Milatos before or after to hear all the history from Eleni!

it's really fun. First you won't find it in usual tourist guide. Second it looks abandoned, nobody looks after this, no light inside, no guard, nobody at all. Flashlight will be helpful if you want explore the cave. Little chapel inside. You might even find it adventurous.

I can't emphasise enough the need for a torch (my phone flashlight was invaluable). It is very low inside so great care needs to be taken. Once inside, it's very eerie and atmospheric. You can't go too far in but if you stop to think about it's history, it's worth the long, hot walk up.

Good place to visit. It has great views, almost no other tourists (after I while my family got tired with crowds usual to Crete). It might be nothing big, it has no electricity so you should bring your own source of light, but it is charming and is a historical place. You should not think it's a spectacular natural cave - I've seen way better and bigger. It's more of a christian worship place in a charming setting. Big + from me, my wife, and my 2,5 yr old kid enjoying the walk, the view, and the little cave itself ;-)I've seen some disabled people trying to get into the cave. Not sure how it ended for the person, but you need to crouch in order to get to the church/chapel itself so I would imagine a person with waling difficulties might miss the entire point of the trip.

Very good experience long uneven path leading to cave, as we walked there would have liked some info at the point of entry as we never had any in our hotel as the history is fascinating

Make sure you have lots of sun cream on as you will be walking across a path to get to the caves. Once inside you will need a torch from our mobile phone. There is a church in the caves with bones inside from the people who suffered.

High in mountains with breath taking views. Need a light or torch as cave is dark. Historical and emotional place to visit.

Amazing place.... Spectacular yet scary yet mysterious....Makes you feel like you are Indiana jones!!! What else could anyone want!

Very basic, no entrance fee or gift shop but a huge amount of Cretan history. Sorry to be so basic but wear comfortable shoes & remember being caves will be cooler than outside. You may want to consider taking rope/string with you as the caves are very extensive & you may want to explore. Ignore the dilapidated building you first encounter; it was started as a tourist attraction & then costs......... follow the path, there are 2 caves where you can imagine the life & eventually trauma the Cretans had to endure. An emotional experience worth a detour/visit

this is ok if you want a proper caving experience.no fancy lights or steps......just a deep dark cave.we bought a small torch of a lovely couple(originally from birmingham) who were outside the cave. i also bought a lovely knitted pink panther which my son loves.the torch wasnt great as its pitch black in here.there is a really sad story behind this cave which makes it more spooky.i banged my head on the roof really hard and when i looked up it was crawling with bugs and huge spiders.my husband went down a bit further and saw lots of bats.great if you come prepared with suitable clothing and a huuuuge torch.

This is a very different attraction - it is free as at this time there is no-one looking after it - this means that there are no lights in the cave and no guide or anyone to tell you the history so you need to look up the history before you go to have a feeling of what the people went through. The walk up to the Cave has now been paved of sorts and is railed off but I am still glad we had walking boots/trainers (the path is fine but inside the cave people in flip flops were tripping over a bit as is very uneven). You will need a torch to make the most of the cave (we hadn't got one but luckily the iPhone 5 has a torch facility and this worked really well (if you have iPhone 4 or 5 scrool the bar up from the bottom and there is a torch icon in the bottom left and it gives off a great light). There is a little chapel/shrine in the cave which is really unusual. We are really glad we went here