Samaria Gorge Tour

A Samaria gorge tour is a walk through the Samaria Gorge, a gorge in the White Mountains of western Crete. It is one of the nature-and-hiking Greece tours that start from Chania.

What is a Samaria gorge tour?

A Samaria gorge tour is a trip to Samaria Gorge, a tight valley between tall rock cliffs. The gorge sits in Crete’s southwest, within the Chania regional unit. A regional unit is a set area of government within a country, much like a county.

A small river created the gorge. This river runs through the land that separates the White Mountains from Mount Volakias. The White Mountains are a group of mountains, and Mount Volakias is a single mountain. A river is moving water that follows a path across land. That moving water made the gorge that a Samaria gorge tour visits.

The 18 km figure counts the distance from Omalos settlement to Agia Roumeli village. The short form km means kilometres, a unit for measuring distance. A settlement is a small place where people live, and so is a village. The figure therefore links two named places on the map.

The gorge and the village are named after the village’s ancient church, Ossia Maria. A church is a building where Christians meet to pray together. Ancient means very old, dating from a time long past. A Samaria gorge tour therefore centres on a place named after a house of worship.

• Greek name: The Greek name of the gorge is Faraggi Samarias, shortened to Faraggas.
• Sea travel: From Agia Roumeli, tourists sail to the nearby village of Sougia or Hora Sfakion.
• Gates route: A route also runs from Agia Roumeli to a place called the Gates and back.

The gorge is a major tourist attraction of the island of Crete. A tourist attraction is a place that visitors travel to see. An island is land surrounded by water. A Samaria gorge tour therefore leads to a place that draws visitors.

Which mountains hold a Samaria gorge tour?

A Samaria gorge tour leads into the White Mountains, a range also known as the Lefka Ori. These mountains fill much of the centre of West Crete. In short, the answer is one mountain range with two names, one English and one Greek.

The Lefka Ori are the main feature of the West Crete region. For a Samaria gorge tour, that makes the range the main setting for a reader to know. Height gives a sense of the scale of the mountains on the island. Pachnes is the second tallest peak in Crete, after Mount Ida.

A Samaria gorge tour belongs to a range with four mountain refuges. A refuge is a shelter in the high mountains. The Volikas Refuge stands above the village of Kampi Keramion at 1,450 metres. The village lies below the refuge, so the land must climb between the two places.

Gourgouthakas is primarily a deep vertical shaft, which is a hole that drops straight down. It holds huge stalagmites and stalactites, two kinds of rock formation. A stalagmite is a rock spike that grows up from the ground. A stalactite is a rock spike that hangs down from above.

• Hiding place: Rebels hid in the range during Cretan uprisings, which were revolts against Venetian and Ottoman rulers.
• Mount Agkathes: This prominent peak, which means it stands out, rises to 1,511 metres in the eastern Lefka Ori.
• Name meaning: The name Gourgouthakas means a small rock cutting that collects rain water for animals to drink.

The high desert of the Lefka Ori has no match elsewhere in the northern hemisphere. A high desert is dry land set high above the sea. That makes the range around a Samaria gorge tour worth knowing as well as the gorge itself.

How long is the gorge on a Samaria gorge tour?

A Samaria gorge tour deals with a gorge quoted at 18 km. That figure is really the distance from a plateau settlement to Agia Roumeli. A plateau is a high, flat stretch of land. A settlement is a place where people live.

The park’s own website says the route starts at Xyloskalo. Xyloskalo is a place name, and it marks the spot where the walk begins. That name is the one to look for in any text about a Samaria gorge tour. A route is simply the path that walkers follow from one end to the other.

For a Samaria gorge tour, the route ends at sea surface in Agia Roumeli. The altitude there is 0 m. Altitude means height above sea level, and sea level is the height of the sea’s surface. So 0 m means the end of the route sits at the same height as the sea.

UNESCO is a world organisation that writes about places of special value. Its text singles out the Lefka Ori gorges for length and narrowness, and rates Samaria highest. Lefka Ori is the mountain range that holds those gorges. A gorge is a deep valley with steep sides, and narrowness means little width.

• End point: The gorge ends on the shore, the land beside the Libyan Sea, in Agia Roumeli.
• Narrowest part: Portes is the name of the least wide part of the gorge.
• Waterfall: The Perdika waterfall, where water drops over a steep edge, measures 240 metres.

A distance says how far apart two places lie. A height says how tall something is, and a rating ranks one place against others. Keeping these ideas apart makes each number about a Samaria gorge tour easier to read.

Why is Samaria a national park for a Samaria gorge tour?

A Samaria gorge tour visits a National Woodland Park, which is how Greece’s national park table lists Samaria. That name means a protected area of forest and wild land. The state sets such an area aside for the care of nature.

The words national woodland park appear in the title of a Greek law. Greece’s first national park law, Law 856/1937, was titled On National Woodland Parks. A law is a written rule passed by the state. Anyone planning a Samaria gorge tour can see in that title how Greek law names such parks.

The park has a core zone, which is the protected centre of the area. The core zone of Samaria National Woodland Park covers 47.52 square kilometres. One square kilometre is a square whose sides are each one kilometre long. Readers can use that figure to picture the protected centre before a Samaria gorge tour.

The Gorge of Samaria joined the UNESCO biosphere reserve network in 1981. UNESCO is the United Nations body for education, science and culture. A biosphere reserve is a place that this network lists for the care of its living world. A Samaria gorge tour therefore visits a place with an international listing.

• Core size: Greek law sets the smallest allowed size of a national park core at 15,000,000 square metres.
• Core use: In a Greek national park core, the law permits only research, mild recreation and environmental information.
• Outer area: The area around a Greek national park core must be at least as large as the core.

Samaria Gorge National Park is listed among the protected areas of the Crete Mediterranean forests ecoregion. An ecoregion is a large natural area with shared plants and animals. Visitor information for Samaria National Park comes from the Chania Forest Protection Service.

What is the kri-kri on a Samaria gorge tour?

A Samaria gorge tour is a good place to learn about the kri-kri, a type of goat. This goat has the scientific name Capra hircus cretica. A scientific name is the one official name experts use for a kind of animal, in any language.

The kri-kri was once common throughout the Aegean, the sea around the Greek islands. Its range reaches the White Mountains and the Samaria National Forest. A range is the whole area where an animal lives. Knowing this range helps a visitor place a Samaria gorge tour in the wider story of the goat.

The kri-kri is largely restricted to Samaria National Park and an island off Agia Marina. That means the goat lives mainly in those two places. A national park is a large area of land that the state protects for nature and wildlife. Hunting the kri-kri is strictly prohibited by law.

Archaeological excavations have unearthed depictions of the kri-kri. Excavations are digs by experts who study the past, and depictions are images that show the animal. A belief among academics holds that the kri-kri was worshiped in antiquity, the ancient world. That ancient history adds depth to a Samaria gorge tour.

• Symbol: The kri-kri is a symbol of Crete and appears in tourism marketing, the advertising of travel.
• Domestication: The kri-kri is a nearly ten-thousand-year-old snapshot of the first goat domestication, or taming.
• Sapientza: Great numbers of kri-kri were brought to Sapientza island to protect the species from dying out.

Grazing grounds, the open land where animals feed on plants, have become scarcer for the kri-kri. Scarcer means that there is less of it to find. These facts give a Samaria gorge tour more meaning for any reader curious about Crete’s wildlife.

Which plants grow along a Samaria gorge tour?

A Samaria gorge tour is a Cretan outing. Crete’s plant life includes dittany, Calabrian pine, Mediterranean cypress and Cretan maple. The island’s tall shrubland, called maquis, is dominated by carob, juniper and tree-spurge. Shrubland is land covered by shrubs.

Dittany of Crete is a tender perennial that grows only 20 to 30 cm high. Perennial means the plant lives for more than two years, and tender means cold can harm it easily. Theophrastus wrote that dittany was peculiar to Crete, a word that here means special to one place.

Calabrian pine is a medium-sized tree that reaches 20 to 35 metres tall. Its slender, needle-like leaves are 10 to 18 centimetres long. Mediterranean cypress is very long-lived, and trees over 1,000 years old have been reported. Pine and cypress are two tree names to remember on a Samaria gorge tour.

Crete has two endemic plant genera, named Horstrissea and Petromarula. A genus is a group of closely related plants, and the plural of genus is genera. Endemic means growing naturally in one place only, which here is Crete. Both names suit anyone who reads about plants before a Samaria gorge tour.

• Erontas: In the Cretan dialect, dittany is called erontas, a name linked to the word for love.
• Cypress resin: Mediterranean cypress has low resin, a sticky tree sap, and does not readily catch or spread fire.
• Cretan maple: Its leaves are hard and leathery, between 1 and 4 centimetres long.

Dittany of Crete is classed as vulnerable on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Plant Species. That list records plants under threat, and vulnerable means a high risk of dying out in the wild. Knowing this adds meaning to a Samaria gorge tour.

What is the Omalos plateau on a Samaria gorge tour?

A Samaria gorge tour is linked with Omalos, a small village in western Crete inside the Chania region. The village shares its name with the plateau. A plateau is a wide area of high, flat land that stands higher than the land around it.

The name Omalos is a Greek word. It means even, plain, regular or smooth, and it describes the plateau. Each of those words points to land that is level rather than steep. Anyone reading about a Samaria gorge tour meets this word in the name of the plateau.

The village sits in the plateau’s north-east corner, 38 kilometres south of Chania. North-east means the corner of the plateau that faces north and east. Omalos is one of the White Mountains plateaus found between 500 and 1,100 metres in height. Plateaus of this kind are high, flat areas set in the mountains.

The plateau was originally a lake. The lake is thought to have drained away through the Tzani Cave. A cave is a large hollow space in rock. To drain means that the water flowed away from the lake. The lake past is a short story to know before reading about a Samaria gorge tour.

• Size: The whole Omalos Plateau covers an area of 15 square kilometres.
• Districts: The plateau lies where three districts, which are named areas, meet: Platanias, Sfakia and East Selino.
• Farming: The plateau’s cooler climate and fertile soil suit growing potatoes, apples and cereals, which are grain crops.

The importance of Omalos comes from its link with trekking. Trekking means walking on foot for a long way across rough country, rather than a short stroll. Anyone choosing a Samaria gorge tour can therefore treat Omalos as a place name worth learning.

What is the Xyloskalo on a Samaria gorge tour?

A Samaria gorge tour is a trip to the Samaria Gorge. A gorge is a tight valley between tall rock cliffs. Xyloskalo is the name of the place where the gorge entrance stands. This spot lies 1,250 metres up, and two peaks rise there.

A legend is an old tale handed on over time, and it is not proven fact. One legend links the two peaks above Xyloskalo with the throne of Zeus. A throne is the seat of a ruler. Zeus is the chief god in Greek myths, and he was born in Crete.

Anyone reading about a Samaria gorge tour can also learn about a cave near Xyloskalo. This cave is the only known home of the amphipod named Niphargobates lefkodemonaki. An amphipod is a very small animal that lives in water. Only known home means that no other home for it has been found so far.

A plateau is a wide stretch of high, flat land. The Omalos plateau has three approaches. An approach is a way of getting close to a place, so the plateau has three ways in. So the word approach is worth knowing for travellers who are reading or planning a Samaria gorge tour.

• Omalos village: This village stands about 5 km from the entrance to the gorge.
• Gingilos: This peak has a height of 2,080 metres and belongs to the pair at Xyloskalo.
• Volakias: This peak is the second of the pair, and its height is 2,116 metres.

On the southern approach, one descends through the Samaria Gorge to the coast. To descend means to go downhill, and the coast is the land beside the sea. Knowing these two words helps travellers read a Samaria gorge tour outline with more ease.

What are the Iron Gates on a Samaria gorge tour?

A Samaria gorge tour is linked with the Gates, the stretch of the gorge that is best known. The same stretch carries a second name, Iron Gates, which is described as incorrect. A gorge is a tight valley between tall rock cliffs.

On a Samaria gorge tour, the Gates are the stretch where the gorge walls draw close together. At that point the gap between the two rock walls narrows to a width of only four metres. In plain words, the walls stand close together and leave only a thin gap between them.

The walls at the Gates soar up to almost 300 metres, which is 980 feet. Both figures give the same height, one in metres and one in feet. The word soar means to rise high into the air. Walls of that height tower over any walker standing at their foot.

The national park’s official site calls the best-known sight inside the gorge Portes. An official site is the web page the park itself runs. This is the name the park uses for that sight. A reader who researches a Samaria gorge tour can match that name to the park’s own wording.

• Distance: The official site places Portes about 1.5 kilometres from the Agia Roumeli outpost, meaning a distant settlement.
• Danube: A different Iron Gates is a Danube gorge that forms part of the border between Serbia and Romania.
• Algeria: Iron Gates in Algeria is a pass through the Bibans mountains, meaning a gap between peaks.

The name Iron Gates alone does not point to one place. A reader needs the full place name to know exactly which site is meant. Pairing the name with the words Samaria gorge tour keeps the search tied to the right gorge.

What was the village of Samaria on a Samaria gorge tour?

A Samaria gorge tour is a walk through a gorge with a village at its centre. That village, Samaria, stands there together with the old crops of its people. Its story shows how people once lived in wild land.

The steep terrain and wild nature of Samaria make the area a hostile place to found settlements. Hostile means harsh and unwelcoming. People have lived in an organised way around Samaria since at least the Early Iron Age. The Early Iron Age is the first part of a period named after the metal iron.

It is thought that permanent settlement inside the gorge was started by people seeking shelter or water. Permanent here means meant to last. The village’s ancient church, Ossia Maria, gave its name to both the village and the gorge. That church is the source of the name used by every Samaria gorge tour.

The land around a Samaria gorge tour holds more than a village. The park names a castle above Samaria among the landscape features of the area. The village homes and an oil press show the villagers’ bond with the place. An oil press is a machine that presses oil out of fruit or seeds.

• Nature: The people of Samaria built their lives around nature and met their needs from what the place offered.
• Care: Villagers avoided excessive exploitation, meaning taking too much, since keeping the landscape intact was key to their survival.
• Vines and chapels: Vines and preserved chapels, which are small places of worship, also show the villagers’ bond with the place.

Samaria is not just a point on a map. Behind every Samaria gorge tour stands a story of people, old buildings and wild land. That story belongs to both the village and the land around it, and each helps explain the other.

What is Agia Roumeli on a Samaria gorge tour?

A Samaria gorge tour is closely tied to Agia Roumeli, a village in southwest Crete. The village marks the end of the Samaria Gorge. A gorge is a tight valley between tall rock cliffs. Its end is where that valley opens out.

The gorge behind every Samaria gorge tour finishes at the Libyan Sea shore, in Agia Roumeli. The valley meets the water at that spot. The village was originally known as Tarra, an ancient city-state. A city-state is a city that rules itself, like a small country of its own.

Tarra had a cult of Apollo Tarrhaios, and parts of his temple have been found. A cult is the shared worship of one god. In 1415 Cristoforo Buondelmonti saw a Greek inscription among the ruins of the Apollo temple at Tarra. An inscription is text carved into stone.

Turkish soldiers failed to reach the gorge that a Samaria gorge tour visits today. They did burn down the town of Agia Roumeli. Castle Agia Roumeli, an old fortress, sits on top of a hill, which lies west of the village. A fortress is a strong building made to defend a place.

• Location: Fournoti beach lies near the village and holds a plant micro-reserve, a small area kept for plants.
• Plant: The micro-reserve is kept for Hypericum aciferum, a rare shrub, which is a low woody plant.
• Area: The micro-reserve covers about 6.5 hectares, a measure of land area.

The village is built as two parallel streets running along the water. Parallel streets run side by side and never cross. A Samaria gorge tour is tied to this shoreline village. The layout is easy to picture: two streets beside the sea.

Which sea lies below a Samaria gorge tour?

A Samaria gorge tour has the Libyan Sea below it. This sea covers the Mediterranean waters north of the African coast of ancient Libya. Ancient means from long ago. Back then, Libya meant a wide part of North Africa that lay west of the Nile.

Crete lies in the southern Aegean, the southern part of that sea. The island separates the Aegean Sea from the Libyan Sea. That fact tells a reader which water belongs to which side of Crete. A traveller who reads about a Samaria gorge tour can use it to tell the two seas apart.

The ancient Libyan coast runs between the places Tobruk and Alexandria. That same stretch now lies in eastern Libya and western Egypt. The name Libyan Sea also predates the modern state of Libya. A modern state is a country that exists today and has its own borders.

Geographers are people who describe and map the world. Ancient geographers called the sea south of Crete by the name Mare Libycum. They described it as stretching between the places Cyrene and Alexandria. A reader curious about a Samaria gorge tour can link that name to the water south of Crete.

• East and north: To the east of the Libyan Sea lies the Levantine Sea, and to its north lies the Ionian Sea.
• West: The Strait of Sicily, a narrow channel of water, lies to the west of the Libyan Sea.
• Depth: Averaged across its whole area, the Mediterranean Sea, which includes the Libyan Sea, is 1,500 metres deep.

Besides Crete, the Libyan Sea holds the islands Gavdos, Gavdopoula, Koufonisi and Chrysi. Naming them turns a blank patch of blue on a map into a real place. A reader who knows them understands the water better before any Samaria gorge tour.

What is Sfakia behind a Samaria gorge tour?

A Samaria gorge tour is tied to Sfakia, a region with an old name. The prevailing theory says the name comes from an ancient Greek word meaning land chasm or gorge. A chasm is a deep, narrow opening in the ground.

A census is a count of all residents, carried out by the state. Sfakia’s 2021 census counted 2,002 inhabitants on 467.589 square kilometres of land. The land figure is given in square kilometres, a standard unit of area. Anyone reading about a Samaria gorge tour can use these figures to picture the region.

Sfakia is considered among the places in Greece that foreign powers have never fully occupied. Foreign powers are states from outside Greece. To occupy a land means to hold it with an army and rule its people. The wording says considered, so it describes how the place is seen, not a measured figure.

The Venetians, people from the city of Venice, built the fortress of Frangokastello in 1371 to deter pirates. A fortress is a strong building made for defence. Pirates are sea raiders, and to deter means to keep them away. The fortress belongs to the same region as a Samaria gorge tour.

• Capture: Daskalogiannis was captured at Frangokastello in 1771, a date that belongs to the place’s recorded history.
• Legend: A story passed down tells of Drosoulites at Frangokastello, visions of troops who died fighting the Turks.
• Pies: Sfakian pies are thin pancakes filled with mizithra, a soft fresh cheese, and drizzled with honey.

The University of Oxford has undertaken a field survey of the archaeology and history of Sfakia. A field survey is a study made on the ground. Archaeology is the study of the past through old objects. A Samaria gorge tour sits inside that studied region.

What does Paleochora add to a Samaria gorge tour?

A Samaria gorge tour is a walking trip. Paleochora adds a town by the sea to that picture. The town lies on Crete’s southwest coast. It carries a long past, which gives the trip a second theme beyond the trail.

Anyone planning a Samaria gorge tour can place Paleochora on the map with two numbers. The town lies 70 km south of Chania. It is set along 11 km of coastline, and that coastline borders the Libyan Sea. A traveller who knows both figures knows where the town sits on the island of Crete.

The town occupies a small peninsula, which is a strip of land reaching into the sea. That strip is 400 m across and 700 m in length. Paleochora had 2,181 residents in the 2021 census, a formal head count of the people living there. Together, these numbers describe a compact town.

Paleochora stands on the ruins of Kalamydi, an ancient city. In 1278 Marino Gradenigo, a general from Venice, built a fort, a defensive building, in the area. Near the fort, people from Venice founded a settlement named Vourgos for workers and merchants. That past adds a side story to a Samaria gorge tour.

• Waters: Paleochora has crystal clear waters, meaning the sea water is very clean and easy to see through.
• Beaches: The town has well organised beaches, which means the shore is set up in an orderly way.
• Anchorages: Paleochora also has isolated small anchorages, meaning remote spots where boats can drop anchor.

In 1539 Hayreddin Barbarossa destroyed the fort. That one event shows how much history fits into one town in Crete. Paleochora therefore adds two things to a Samaria gorge tour: a sea coast to enjoy and a long past to learn about.

Which other gorges lie near a Samaria gorge tour?

A Samaria gorge tour has three other Cretan gorges for company: Agia Eirini, Aradena and Kotsifos. A gorge is a tight valley between tall rock cliffs. Each one has a different character, shaped by its length, its history or its plants.

Agia Eirini Gorge lies in the south-west of Crete, inside the Lefka Ori mountains. It starts near Agia Eirini village and ends near Sougia on the south coast. The gorge is 7.5 kilometres long, and its walls are between 45 and 500 metres deep. Readers can compare a Samaria gorge tour with those numbers.

Aradaina village stands at 520 metres on the southern hillside of the Lefka Ori. A hillside is the sloping side of a hill or mountain, and the southern one faces south. Aradaina lies 3.5 kilometres from the larger village of Anopolis. Its name is close to that of the Aradena gorge.

Kotsifos Gorge lies west of Mount Kouroupa and north of Plakias, on the road between Sellia and Angouseliana. Those four place names help travellers find the gorge on a map before any trip is planned. Anyone who weighs a Samaria gorge tour against other outings can start with those four landmarks.

• Agia Eirini: In 1866, 1,000 women and children escaped from the Ottomans through Agia Eirini Gorge.
• Aradena: History records that Daskalogiannis fought his last battle in the Aradena gorge.
• Kotsifos: The gorge is noted for a high number of endemic plants, which grow naturally only on Crete.

Seen from the gorge floor, the Aradena bridge is 138 metres high. Readers who weigh a Samaria gorge tour against its neighbours now have names, places and numbers to check. Agia Eirini, Aradena and Kotsifos are the three names to look up first.

What do Loutro and Sougia add to a Samaria gorge tour?

A Samaria gorge tour gains ancient history from Loutro and Sougia. Loutro stands where ancient Phoenix once was, the port town serving ancient Anopolis. Sougia was the ancient city of Syia, a harbour of Elyros. A harbour is a sheltered place where boats tie up.

Loutro lies along the southern shore of Crete, with Chora Sfakion on one side and Agia Roumeli on the other. Agia Roumeli is the Samaria Gorge exit, and the gorge gives a Samaria gorge tour its name. A traveller can reach Loutro only by walking or by boat. Foot here means walking along a path.

A ruined chancellery stands at Loutro. A chancellery is an office building for officials who run a government. In 1821 the first revolutionary government met in this building. A revolutionary government is a group of leaders running an uprising against the existing rulers. Loutro adds this chapter of history to a Samaria gorge tour.

Sougia sits on Crete’s south coast, 70 kilometres south of Chania. The village has a listed population of 95. A listed population is the number of residents written in official records. It counts the people who live in the village. With only 95 residents on record, Sougia is a very small place.

• Ferry links: Ferry boats link Sougia with Palaiochora, Agia Roumeli, Loutro and Hora Sfakion.
• Lissos access: Lissos can be reached from Sougia by boat or on foot.
• Lissos today: Nobody lives in Lissos nowadays, so the site has no residents at all.

Excavations are digs that uncover remains. At Lissos, they revealed ruins of a theatre, an aqueduct, a cemetery, ancient baths and early Christian basilicas. An aqueduct carries water; a basilica is a church hall. Sougia adds these ruins to a Samaria gorge tour.

What does the history of Crete add to a Samaria gorge tour?

A Samaria gorge tour adds a long human story to the natural landscape of Crete. That story reaches far back into ancient times. The Minoan palace complexes, which were the large building groups of Crete’s early culture, had no defensive walls.

Crete’s links reached beyond the island very early on. By the 16th century BC, remains on the Greek mainland show Minoan contacts there. Rome arrived much later. Metellus earned the name Creticus when Rome conquered Crete in 69 BC. A Samaria gorge tour therefore takes place on an island with a Roman past.

Gortyn was made capital of the joint Roman province of Crete and Cyrenaica. A province is a region ruled as one unit, and this one joined Crete with a second region. Gortyn also held the Basilica of Saint Titus, the largest Christian basilica on Crete. A basilica is a large church hall.

Venice held Crete for more than four centuries, as the Kingdom of Candia. In 1363, Cretans and Venetian settlers overthrew Venetian authorities and declared an independent Cretan Republic. A republic is a state with no king as its head. Both of these events belong in the story behind any Samaria gorge tour.

• Census: The last Ottoman census, an official count of people, put Christians at 76% of Crete’s population in 1881.
• Self-rule: Crete became a semi-independent parliamentary state, with an assembly and a Christian governor, inside the Ottoman Empire.
• Treaty: The Treaty of London in 1913 ended Sultan Mehmed V’s formal rights to Crete.

When Crete united with mainland Greece, the Greek flag was raised at the Firkas fortress in Chania. A fortress is a strong building made to protect a place. Knowing these events gives a Samaria gorge tour a clear frame that links land and people.

Which birds fly above a Samaria gorge tour?

A Samaria gorge tour is on Crete, where the peregrine falcon and red-billed chough are resident birds. A resident bird does not leave the island but stays there all year. A falcon is a fast bird that hunts other animals.

A griffon vulture has buff body and wing coverts, buff being a pale sandy colour. Coverts are the small feathers covering the base of the wing. The flight feathers, the long feathers used to fly, are dark and contrast with the buff. Knowing this pattern is useful before a Samaria gorge tour.

The bearded vulture measures 94 to 125 centimetres long. Its wingspan, meaning the width across both wings, is 2.31 to 2.83 metres. Those two ranges describe a very large bird. A reader preparing for a Samaria gorge tour can use these numbers to judge bird size.

After dropping a large bone, a bearded vulture spirals or glides down to inspect it. To spiral is to circle downward, and to glide is to float without flapping. A tale says an eagle killed a man, Aeschylus, with a dropped tortoise. In the tale, the eagle took his bald head for a stone.

• Griffon vulture: It has a white neck ruff, a collar of feathers around the neck, and a yellow bill.
• Bearded vulture: Bristles under the chin form the black beard that gives the bird its name.
• More birds: The bird list for Crete also names the lanner falcon and the European kestrel.

The proportions of the bearded vulture have been compared to a falcon scaled to an enormous size. Scaled up means made larger in every direction by the same amount. That comparison is easy to remember for anyone who is planning a Samaria gorge tour.

What questions come up about a Samaria gorge tour?

A Samaria gorge tour links four points. The first is the airport and its codes. The next is the season and its air temperatures. Then come the city where the trip starts and the island of Crete with its people and neighbours.

Which airport serves a Samaria gorge tour?

The airport has the IATA code CHQ, a three-letter code for tickets and bags. Its ICAO code is LGSA, a four-letter code used by pilots and air control. It received the official name Ioannis Daskalogiannis in 2000. Its boarding gates, where passengers board planes, rose from 14 to 16.

Which season suits a Samaria gorge tour?

The Chania Airport (Souda) weather station records an April average high of 19.9 °C. In July, the Chania Airport (Souda) station shows a mean temperature of 26.6 °C. For October, the Chania Airport (Souda) station gives an average low of 15.9 °C. All three figures come from one station.

Which city is the usual start for a Samaria gorge tour?

Chania stands on Crete’s north-western shore, around 145 km west of Heraklion. Venetian fortifications, or defensive walls, once surrounded its old town, and building them started in 1538. A colonization wave in 1252 led to the founding of Canea, modern Chania. Colonization means settlers founding new towns.

Which island holds a Samaria gorge tour?

As of 2021, the Region of Crete had 624,408 inhabitants, meaning people who live there. The Dodecanese, a group of islands, lie to the northeast of Crete. Heraklion, the largest city on Crete, holds more than a fourth of the island’s population. That is over one in four residents.