The main chamber
Stalactites and stalagmites in a wide lit space.
C messier โ CC BY-SA 4.0 ยท Dietmar Rabich โ CC BY-SA 4.0 ยท Dietmar Rabich โ CC BY-SA 4.0
A large cave in the Mylopotamos hills east of Rethymno, with stalactites, stalagmites and a wide main chamber โ and it was **sacred from Minoan times**, a place of worship for **Talos**, the bronze giant who in myth guarded Crete. But what Cretans know it for is something else entirely. โ **In October 1823**, during the Greek War of Independence, about **three hundred and seventy** people from the surrounding villages โ **mostly women, children and the elderly** โ took refuge in this cave from an Ottoman force. They were besieged inside and refused to surrender. The besiegers lit **fires at the mouth of the cave** and sealed it, and everyone inside **suffocated**. Their bones were later gathered into a **tomb inside the cave** which still stands, with a memorial altar. Rethymno commemorates them each year. โ So the visit is **not a geological outing**: it is the site of a massacre, and that is felt inside. Behave accordingly.
Stalactites and stalagmites in a wide lit space.
The remains of the 1823 victims and a memorial altar inside.
A place of worship since the Bronze Age.
Melidoni, Mylopotamos, 74052 Rethymno
**The cave itself yes; its story not for young ones.** Geologically it is a lit cave with steps and walkways, and the stalactites hold children's attention. โ But inside is a **tomb holding the remains of about 370 people** who suffocated in 1823, most of them women and children โ and this is explained and displayed at the site. With a small child you can visit without going into the detail. With school-age children, **prepare them beforehand** so they understand what they are seeing and why the atmosphere inside is what it is. โ And note practically: **the ground is wet and slippery and the steps steep**, and the air is cold.
For two recurring reasons. **The first is religious**: caves were places of worship from Minoan times โ offerings were made in them and they were tied to the gods, the best known being the **Dikteon Cave**, where legend places Zeus's birth, and the Idaean Cave. **The second is tragic**: Crete is a mountainous island that resisted foreign rule for centuries, and when a military expedition came, unarmed villagers fled to the caves as the only refuge โ which turned them repeatedly into traps. **Melidoni** is the best known of these episodes, but not the only one.
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