06/04/2026
Cave of Milatos
The Cave of Milatos is located in the prefecture of Lassithi, 3 km outside Milatos village. Although the cave doesn't have many stalactites and stalagmites, it has historical and sentimental importance for the locals as this is where about 3,600 people were slaughtered by the Turks in February 1823, during the Greek Revolution.
The cave is quite large, 73 meters long and 63 meters wide. Measuring about 2,100 sq.m., it has eight entrances and the height varies from one to three meters. Ancient remains found inside testify to the presence of people in the Neolithic times.
When the Revolution started for the Greeks to deliberate from the Ottoman rule, Crete had also risen and the Turks were trying to suspend the revolutionary actions by burning villages and killing people. To save themselves, the residents of Milatos found shelter inside the cave. The men were protecting the entrance and the Turks had circled the cave, not letting them out.
Two weeks passed, from February 3rd to 15th, and the Greeks suffered from hunger and thirst. Exhausted as they were, they made a brave decision: to escape the cave and fight the Turks, hoping that some of them would survive. However, the Turks brutally killed most of them, the 18 priests were burned to death and those who survived were sold as slaves to Egypt.
To commemorate this tragic event, a small church of Saint Thomas was built inside the cave in 1935 and a memorial to host the bones of the killed people. A small service is held every year in this cave to their memory.
To go to the cave, you park your car in the valley beneath and then take a narrow footpath on the slopes of a gorge, about 200 meters long.
