Makriglia: once it was a sea...

Six and a half billion years ago, fish swam in the area where Makriglia is today and the seabed was full of corals. Nowadays, at 130 meters altitude, there is a traditional village with rich agricultural production and famous olive groves.

North of the village once - between 880 and 1000 AD - stood the famous communal monastery of Agios Antonios, which housed two hundred monks in sketes, i.e. in natural and carved caves, which remain unchanged to this day. In one of these caves it is even believed that a secret school operated during the period of Turkish rule.

According to the legends of the area, there is one that has not yet been discovered and in it are the treasures of the monastery, while others believe that this cave was the birthplace of Cronus, the father of Zeus, hence the name Cronio. In 1970 the main church of the monastery was renovated and renamed Peter and Paul's.

Source and photos: Municipality of Ierapetra