Visiting Profitis Ilias Village, Heraklion Crete - part 1

A few days ago, all of a sudden, someone from the gang said. Lets go to Profitis Ilias, we will eat Sfougato (a special omelette done the Cretan way), have a coffee and get back before noon!

Of course it was very difficult to resist, so - off we went!

Profitis Ilias is a historical village located approximately 18 kilometers south of Heraklion on the island of Crete, Greece. It is built on the hill of Rocca, which provided a strategic advantage. In ancient times, it served as a fortress for the city of Lykastos.

The first thing that I noticed was the abandoned houses, the cute goat and..

The great view! This village is very high, many hundred meters above sea level. The view is really impressive, wherever you look!

Do you notice that little church on top?
It is devoted to Virgin Mary and it really got me wondering, how on earth they could build it so high!

Next time, I will ask for the history of it and perhaps even try visit

And now lets move over to the first abandoned house that I got to visit.

I cant even imagine what it must have looked like during the days of glory.
High, on the edge of the Village, it looked like a little palace.

Elements of the house were lying on the grounds

I took some more photos before I went away.

I continued walking to find out that there were many lovely houses around with lovely details.

I almost tried to enter the front yard, but I saw people looking at me with suspicion so I kept walking.

This is one of the villages heroes statue. Soldiers and citizens had fought here in the past. This village most probably exists since the Byzantine times (more about this on my second part), so there were definitely a lot of fighting

More beautiful houses and a huge lemon tree!

Beautiful flowers and succulents around

I wondered if I could live here. Well, with all these lemons, I probably could.

Another abandoned house and .. Themistokleous Street

I hope you enjoyed todays route. Next time I will share more info about a Byzantine Castle, where we can still see the remains of it! Castle di Rocca!

This is where the village is located (3), a few kilometers away from Heraklion (2)
(1) was my starting point