LENDAS IN CRETE
 The small coastal village of Lendas is 73km southeast of Iraklion, in the south of Crete. The name Lendas derives from the word lion (liondas), because from high up the peninsula looks shaped like a lion. Lendas is an ancient Greek and Roman site, and has Byzantine churches and some escavations that you can visit. It's a cosy little village filled with flowers and bougainville, friendly people, and there are plenty of taverna's and a supermarket. |
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| Compared to Kali Limenas or Tsoutsouros, both also difficult to reach villages in the south, it's more touristic. The town beach in Lendas is rather small but 15 minutes away on the east side you can find a very large, pretty and quiet beach, where there is also a place for the nudists under us (like me ;). Our only problem was how to find our way back out of the village towards Heraklion, and we were not the only ones. A sign would have been a good plan, because maybe if you visit you end up riding in circles like us and like other people. We finally took a dirt track that took us to the right road that brought us back to where we came from. |
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| Lendas is the site of the ancient city Lebena. Although there was an early Minoan site in the area, Lebena flourished mainly during the Greek and Roman period when it was the harbour of Gortyn. There was a famous sanctuary for healing here with a temple of Asklipios from the fourth century B.C. At the site of the sanctuary, which is at the beginning of the modern village, one can see traces of Roman mosaic, Greek coloured pebble mosaic representing a sea horse, coloms, and marble steps among other features. On this site a Byzantine church was build using also materials from the sanctuary. It's called the church of Agios Ioannis Theologos. Next to this church you can see the remains of the coloms that ones formed the older three-aisled basilica. |
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