Milatos Cave is located 3 kilometers outside of Milatos hamlet in the Lassithi Prefecture. Despite the cave’s lack of stalactites and stalagmites, it holds historical and sentimental significance for the inhabitants because it was here that the Turks massacred roughly 3,600 people during the Revolution in February 1823.
The Revolution had erupted at the time, and the Greeks were attempting to free themselves from Ottoman domination. Crete had also risen, and the Turks were attempting to put a stop to the revolutionary deeds of torching villages and murdering civilians.
Milatos villagers sought refuge within the cave in an attempt to preserve themselves. The Turks had ringed the cave, refusing to let them escape, and the soldiers were guarding the entrance. The Greeks were hungry and thirsty for two weeks, from February 3rd to February 15th. They made a daring decision, exhausted as they were, to flee the cave and battle the Turks, hoping that some of them would live. The Turks, on the other hand, massacred the majority of them; the 18 priests were burnt alive, and those who survived were sent as slaves to Egypt.
In 1935, a modest church dedicated to Saint Thomas was erected inside the cave, as well as a monument to house the bones of the victims. Every year, a short memorial ceremony is performed in this cave in their honor.
The cave is fairly vast, measuring 73 meters in length and 63 meters in width. It is approximately 2,100 square meters in size, with eight entrances and a height ranging from one to three meters. The existence of humanity in the Neolithic period has been confirmed by the discovery of ancient bones within. To get to the cave, park your car in the valley below and walk 200 meters down a small route on the gorge’s slopes.
