Therisso Gorge and the Cave near its Mouth

Therisso Gorge and its cave

Therisso Gorge (Therisiano Farangi, Θερισιανό Φαράγγι) opens a few kilometres south of Chania, between limestone slopes and low wooded hills at the north-western foot of the White Mountains. It is the gorge closest to the town. Officially it is the “Eleftherios Venizelos Gorge”, for at its upper end, 580 metres above the sea and some fifteen kilometres from Chania, lies the village of Therisso – the birthplace of Venizelos’s mother and the place from which the future statesman launched his revolt in 1905. For about six kilometres the route follows the bed of a small stream, accompanied by plane trees, chestnuts and dense scrub, and shortly before the mouth of the gorge it passes a roomy cave. The walk is among the easiest on the island: the path is signposted, the climb of roughly 400 metres is spread gently over the whole distance, it takes about two hours, and no mountain experience is needed. Anyone who would rather not walk can simply drive through, on the narrow asphalt road that runs up from the suburb of Perivolia to Therisso – this is the one gorge in Crete that can be travelled from end to end by car.

That accessibility is precisely the charm of the place. Unlike the great gorges of the south coast, the valley demands neither a whole day nor a return by boat; yet the cliffs rise sheer and close in tightly all the same, the light comes filtered through the leaves, and in autumn the trees along the stream turn colours that are seldom seen in Crete. Climbers have equipped routes on the rock faces, in four separate sectors. At the spot called Tris Ekklisies an old stone bridge spans the stream bed; local people call it simply “Kamara”, the arch.

The cave near the mouth of the gorge

The cave lies about two and a half kilometres north of the village of Therisso. It is known as Kato Sarakina (Κάτω Σαρακήνα), and occasionally as Elliniko. It is some eight metres high, twelve metres wide and about twenty metres deep. The broad entrance can be made out from the road, and the interior has kept its natural karst character. Like many Cretan caves, it gave shelter to the people of the district under Ottoman rule: in time of war they could wait out the danger here, away from roads and villages. Therisso had need of such places. The gorge was the natural line of approach to the village, and it is said that 300 insurgents once held its entrance against 5,000 Ottoman troops under Latif Pasha, who lost some 500 men. The village itself was burnt down more than once in the 19th century – in 1821 and 1822 by Turkish-Cretan and Egyptian forces, and at the end of September 1866 by the troops of Mustafa Naili Pasha – so that for the people of the valley a hiding place of this kind was no mere precaution.

The archaeological finds span a long stretch of time, from the Neolithic through the Minoan era and on into the Geometric period. They consist chiefly of potsherds and other traces of human presence. The cave was therefore not used by one generation only, but was sought out again and again over thousands of years; it is thought to have served at times in antiquity as a sanctuary. There is no display on the spot and nothing has been arranged for show – which makes the recovered material all the more valuable as evidence for the early history of this countryside.

The karst landscape of Chania

The limestone gorges and caves of the country behind Chania form a single connected natural system. In the neighbouring gorges there are underground watercourses, springs, stalactites and small cave chapels. In Therisso Gorge the interplay of water and relief is especially marked: the stream has cut the bed of the gorge, while the dissolving of the limestone has opened cavities and natural shelters in its walls.

The stream runs only seasonally – as a rule there is water into the spring – and the cave has no facilities for visitors. After rain some stretches become slippery; deeper cavities should not be entered without a companion who knows the ground and without adequate light.

The caves as places of memory

In wars and times of persecution the caves of Crete often served as temporary refuges. That role does not cancel their older history: the archaeological layers of the cave at Therisso show that the natural shelter drew people long before the Ottoman period. The gorge is thus at once a way into nature and a place where the traces of a human hold on the landscape lasting thousands of years can be read – from the Stone Age potsherd, by way of the Byzantine fortress on Kastellos, to the risings of the 19th and early 20th centuries. The Chalis brothers of Therisso were among the heroes of the struggle of 1821. The last of the risings began on 23 March 1905, when some 1,500 men, only about 500 of them armed, gathered in the village around Eleftherios Venizelos to demand union with Greece and an end to the autocratic rule of the High Commissioner, Prince George; within three weeks about 7,000 sympathisers had assembled. The insurgents laid down their arms on honourable terms on 25 November, the prince resigned in September 1906 and was succeeded by Alexandros Zaimis, and in 1913 Crete was formally united with Greece.