Overview

The Lasithi plateau is a wonderful and strange getaway from the noise and development of the northern coast of Crete. Located just 25 km south of the party town of Malia, and a bit more from the even-greater party town of Limin Hersonissou, the plateau is another world.

The Lasithi plateau has been cultivated since Minoan times and was the last pocket of resistance of the Minoan Cretans against the Dorian onslaught, in the 4th century AD. The Venetians demolished all villages of the plateau in the late 13th century because of the fierce resistance to their rule that they encountered.

The area was inhabited again in the middle of the 16th century, with settlers from outside Crete, and the Venetians built about ten thousand windmills to irrigate the land and make it appropriate for agriculture.

Most of the windmills lay in ruins today, and only a few are in use; mostly the ones at the enstrances to the plateau.