Mount Dicte Crete
Mount Dicte and the plateau of Lassithi can be reached from
Agios Georgios. Mount Dicte (known locally as Lassithiotika
Vouna) is part of the Dinarotauric Arrow and has an altitude of
2,148 metres. There are eight peaks, the highest being Psari
Madara at 2,141 metres. These peaks form the plateau of Lassithi
which covers an area of 402 square metres.
The plateau of Lassithi is a green, fertile valley at an
altitude of around 817 metres, covering an area of 25,000 square
kilometres and is one of the most impressively beautiful areas
on the island.
Scattered around its extensive acreage are 10,000 white-sailed
windmills which have been used for decades to irrigate the land.
Nowadays, most of them have been abandoned in favour of more
modern methods of irrigation.
Nevertheless, the area is lavishly cultivated with vegetables,
fruit and almond trees. Another name for the plateau is the
Plateau of Windmills. The plateau has some twenty villages
within its boundaries, the capital village being Tzermiado with
a population of 1,000 people. Excavations at Diktaion Andron
cave, at Trapeza cave and at Karfi and Plati, indicate that the
area has been lived in ever since Neolithic times.
In Classical times it was part of the flourishing ancient city
of Littos. During both the Venetian and the Turkish occupations,
the plateau provided refuge to the revolutionary fighters which
led to the Venetians, in 1263, forbidding any construction and
cultivation in the area.
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