Kamilari cave

The cave Kamilari is an easily accessible and impressive cave of Psiloritis Mountain. It is located just 200m from the 13th km of the old road connecting Heraklion with Rethymnon, near Tylisos, at an altitude of 267m. It has 200m long paths, while its entrance has a width of 10m and a height of 4m.

It is a very impressive cave because of the large size of the rooms. The first (about 35m in length) is used by local farmers, who have built and rough stonework inside it. The ceiling here is blackened by soot. The transition from the first room to the second largest room is done with an auxiliary 5m rope, because of the steep slope. The second room is about 5m long, 20m wide, 15m high and offers an impressive and voluminous cave decor.

According to a written testimony, the cave was probably used as a place of worship during the sub-minoan period (1100 BC) and the roman period (69-395 AD). Subminoan, protogeometric, geometric and possibly roman potsherds have been found. Perhaps Kamilari has been a place of worship to a kourotrofi deity, fact that later led to illegal excavations here.