The breakwater walk
Half a kilometre on the water between sea and harbour.
Jebulon โ CC0 ยท Jolovema โ CC BY-SA 4.0 ยท Olaf Tausch โ CC BY 3.0 ยท Olaf Tausch โ CC BY 3.0
Because **the Egyptians rebuilt it**. In the 1830s Crete was under the rule of **Muhammad Ali Pasha**, the governor of Egypt, the Ottoman sultan having granted him the island in return for military support. During that short period the decayed Venetian lighthouse was rebuilt in the form you see today, to an architectural taste unlike the European: an octagonal base, a square body and a cylindrical tower, a composition closer to a minaret than to a lighthouse. Which is why the people of Chania still call it the **"Egyptian lighthouse"**, though its foundation is Venetian.
Safe in calm weather, **and dangerous otherwise**. The causeway is old, uneven stone, unrailed on its seaward side in stretches, and not wide. โ In **strong wind or rough seas** โ common in Chania with the northerlies โ **waves break over it** and flood sections, and people have been swept off. The rule: look at the sea before you start; if waves are hitting the breakwater, don't walk. In calm weather allow 10โ15 minutes each way, and avoid midday in summer as there is no shade at all.
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It stands at the end of the **breakwater** closing the Venetian harbour, the emblem of Chania and the most photographed thing in it โ and among the oldest surviving lighthouses in the world. The **Venetians** built it at the end of the sixteenth century to guard the harbour mouth. It was then rebuilt in the 1830s by the **Egyptians**, while Crete was under the rule of **Muhammad Ali Pasha** โ which is why its present shape is unusual for a European lighthouse: an octagonal base, then a square body, then a cylindrical tower, its overall form **resembling a minaret**. Hence its common name, the **"Egyptian lighthouse"**. You reach it by **walking the breakwater**: a stone causeway running some five hundred metres from the harbour's edge, a walk of 10โ15 minutes. From beside it you see the whole old town from the water โ the arc of coloured buildings with the white mountains behind. โ The lighthouse itself is **closed and cannot be climbed** โ the visit is the causeway and the view, not the interior.
Half a kilometre on the water between sea and harbour.
The arc of coloured buildings with white mountains behind.
An octagonal base and a minaret-like tower โ rare in Europe.
Venetian harbour breakwater, 73100 Chania