Crete is the most Southern and at the same time largest island of the Greek archipelago. With its surface of 8350 km2 the island is the on four after largest in the Mediterranean sea. From East to West it's only 256 km long and between 15 and 60 km wide. Mount Ida is with its altitude of 2456 meters not only the highest peak of the Psiloritisde (or Ida mountain), but also of the complete island. The island shows remarkable contrasts: orange orchards in the west, vintages in the east and inbetween savage mountains and upland plains bordered by caves and gaps. And offcourse one finds the olive-trees all over the island, which provide the olive oil and the olives to eat.
One of the most known regions and also the vegetable supplier of the island, in the surroundings of Heraklion, is the Lassiti upland plain. The largest and most fertile plain of the island is the Messara plain. You come across it if you drive from Heraklion to Matala, on the South coast.
History of Crete: The island Crete has arisen by the collision of European and African continental plates in a similar manner such as on which the Alps and the Himalaya have arisen. The oldest signs of civilisation on Crete date from approximately 6500 b.c.. when peoples from Asia migrated to the island. This period is known as the Neolithicum and ended approximately 3000 b.c.. By this time the Minoian civilisation thrived, which produced good sailors, traders and farmers.
Because they controlled nearly the whole Eastern Mediterranean sea and had hardly any enemies, they developed to a particularly high civilisation. Knossos supposedly was an important ceremonial and political centre. To this minoan civilisation came an end around 1400 b.c.. This is frequently connected with a probable devastating earthquake and volcano eruption (Thera). In this event some even see the reason for the legend of Atlantis. Dendrochronological research has however shown that the Thera eruption happened two centuries earlier (1628 b.c..).
Around 1000 b.c. peoples from the Greek main land migrated to Crete and began the Dorian time. The following 2500 years are characterised by a chain of wars. Successively Roman, Arab, Byzantine, Venice and Turk armies invaded the island. During Turkish predominance, which had started in 1645, the Cretans started a large battle for independence. This fight had been rather limited at first , but after the drama of the Arkadi convent in 1866, the Cretans started a huge revolution which eventually led to the involuntary independence of Crete in 1898. Involuntary, because Crete wanted to connect itself to Greece.
Crete was temporarily ruled by the Greek prince George, but was still under the sovereignty of the Turkish sultan. In 1913 Crete was incorporated in the kingdom of Greece after the victory of Greece in the Balkan war. In the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century the Mirtos of today did not exist at all. There was, however, a small port which functioned as a kind of market and where the inhabitants of a number of small living communities came together. Those hamlets were situated more or less around the current village, as, for example, at the place where now the church court is situated.
At that small port the products which people cultivated or made, such as vegetables, fruits, wine, oil and cheese, but also charcoal, were shipped to Ierapetra. In that time Ierapetra had already a larger port. From Ierapetra the products were shipped to places such as Heraklion and Athens. In that period there were no roads like now. Only by means of donkey trails one could reach Ierapetra. Hence the importance of the small port of Mirtos. According to a tough story Napoleon has ever been in Ierapetra.
Mirtos existed not yet as real village. That also would be much too dangerous, because also the Libean sea was populated by pirates, who were a real threat for the people and their properties. Hence that people lived deeper country-inward.
The threat of pirates decreased in the 20th century. It became more attractively to live nearer to the sea and especially the port. 90 % of the population of the 6 kilometres further lain town of Gdogia departed before the second World War to Mirtos. This way the real increase of the village Mirtos started. Until the second World War.
In May 1941 German parachutists landed in the west of Crete in a attempt to take over the island. After a heavy fight between Australian, New-Sealand and Greek armies on the one hand and Germans on the other side, Crete eventually was conquered by the Germans. The German army has brought a lot of violence to the South coast of Crete. Mirtos was not spared. On September the 15th 1944 the inhabitants got the order from the Germans to abandon the village within two hours. Many did not obey and that meant that 18 men in Mirtos were killed. The commemoration sign on the square of Mirtos reminds of that dreadful event. The survivors were also struck heavily by the setting on fire of their houses. The inhabitants escaped to the east and this way Mirtos was also threatened to become an abandoned an ruined village. The Germans did not move further east. Ierapetra has for example escaped the destiny of Mirtos.
Many people didn't want to return to Mirtos after the war. As a result of the fires only the walls of the houses were still intact and don't forget the human drama of 18 perished inhabitants and the bitter poverty that had arisen and had cost the lives of many. The land, on which almost anyone depended, had been almost entirely destroyed. But the Greek government repaired a number of houses and obliged escaped people to return to Mirtos. Mirtos started its convalescence.
In the beginning of the seventies tourists started to explore the southern part of Crete and experienced the charm of Mirtos. Local inhabitants offered rooms with shared toilets and showers. The first fans continued to return in those years. Some of them still annual return to Mirtos. You still can find simple rooms, but by far most the appartments which now are offered are good or even luxurious. All chambers or apartments have meanwhile their own bathrooms.
Mirtos has several guest houses, apartment buildings and hotels. With English one can make oneself almost everywhere well audible. Not only tourists, but also hippies had a very pleasant time in Mirtos. In the eyes of many they were idiots, nevertheless they were fully accepted within the community. Many counterculturists also arrived in Tertsa. In the seventies and eighties a number of families have been founded there.
Nowadays people live of the tourism, but also of horticulture. About 1970 in Southeast Crete a beginning has been made with cultivating vegetables and fruits in greenhouses. Two Dutch have introduced this way of horticulture, where more harvest is obtained from the soil. The landscape between Ierapetra and Nea Mirtos has suffered as a result of this. This way of horticulture however brought great prosperity. Ierapetra for example has become as a result, one of the richest cities of Greece.
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