Chrysi – the Golden Island

Chrysi: the golden island off Ierapetra

Chrysi – Gaidouronisi in common speech – lies like a low, pale streak in the Libyan Sea, about eight nautical miles south of Ierapetra. The island is uninhabited and small: it is some five kilometres long and just under two kilometres across at its widest; its highest point, Kefala, reaches a mere 31 metres above the sea. Some 700 metres to the east lies the islet of Mikronisi, a refuge for seabirds, and the water towards it is shallow, nowhere more than about five metres deep. The pale sand, the shallow bays and the colour of the water account for the marketable name of “Golden Island”. Yet anyone who takes Chrysi for a beach and nothing more misses the point.

Juniper wood, dunes and shell sand

The greatest natural treasure of Chrysi is its rare woodland. Here grows the so-called Cretan cedar, botanically the large-fruited juniper (Juniperus macrocarpa), adapted to salt wind and sandy soil; in other parts of the island it is joined by the Phoenician juniper. This is held to be the largest naturally formed wood of Juniperus macrocarpa in Europe. The trees stand well apart, at something like 28 to the hectare, and average seven metres in height, the tallest reaching ten; their average age is put at about two hundred years, with individual trees approaching three hundred. Their widely branching roots lie close beneath the surface and bind the dunes together – every footstep off the paths lays them bare. Wood, dunes and shore habitats therefore demand the utmost care: it is forbidden to break off branches, to take away sand or shells, to light fires or to leave rubbish behind.

The sand itself is a curiosity. It consists in large part of countless millions of ground-down shells of bivalves and sea snails, which give the white a rosy tinge. On the eastern side, beyond Belegrina, thousands of fossilised shells, most of them bivalves, lie packed together in the rock – dead shells swept together by the water and turned to stone, the remains of a sea bed that rose long ago. On the south coast at Vlychadia, by contrast, the rocks are black and red, the product of ancient lava. The best-known beach is Belegrina, also called Chrysi Akti, “Golden Beach”, on the north coast; the longest, Hatzivolakas, adjoins it to the west, and Kataprosopo at the eastern end looks across to Mikronisi. In winter the old salt pan at Spilios turns into a small brackish lagoon where migrating birds rest.

Traces of human presence

The island bears witness to human presence in several periods: the remains of a settlement of Minoan and Roman date, the small chapel of St Nicholas (Agios Nikolaos) on the north coast, old stone buildings and the traces of salt-working. The Minoan settlement is dated to between 1800 and 1500 BC. The chapel is assigned to the 13th century and has been altered since; near it are at least three graves cut into the rock, and further west stands a small beacon, now powered by solar panels. In antiquity the island was drawn into the sea routes along the south coast of Crete, and the precious purple dye was extracted here from the shells of the murex (Murex brandaris); workshops for the purpose have been identified in the Minoan settlement. In modern times there were seasonal camps of fishermen and shepherds and simple working buildings, among them a single house of the mid-20th century. A walk across Chrysi thus leads not merely from beach to beach but through an old cultural landscape.

In season, which runs from about the middle of May to late October, the boats leave the harbour of Ierapetra in the morning and return in the afternoon; the crossing takes just under an hour, some fifty minutes on the faster vessels. The island’s main landing place is the quay at Vougiou Mati on the south coast, with a second anchorage at Spilios. There is neither drinking water on the island nor any natural shade outside the closed wood – water, a hat and sun protection belong in the bag. Whatever is brought is taken away again.