At some point it was rumoured that Zeus the Great, the master of the ancient pantheon, who was born in the Diktean Cave, and was brought up in the mountain of Idi, had died and had been buried at his place of birth, Crete. True to Zeus, the poet of Hellenistic times, Kalimahos from Alexandria, dedicates a hymn in which he strongly refutes the unacceptable, in his opinion, story: "…Oh father… The Cretans have always been liars. But why have they gone as far as in the grave, Oh king, to bury you. But you have not died, you are immortal."
Indeed the Cretans were lying. It is irrefutable however that they had their reasons for wanting their grand god to die, reasons that no one else could comprehend: a god who is the embodiment of nature is a god who dies every year and is reborn even stronger with the blossoming spring…. Similarly, Zeus, born and raised in Crete, dies and is resurrected, lives and reigns. It is also self -explanatory that he who is in harmony with nature and lives at her pace cannot but respect, love and accept her offspring.
In this way the Zeus of Crete becomes Xenios, the protector of visitors, who generously offers his hospitality to every stranger who wishes to honour his sacred land. Besides hospitality, two other principles also dominate in the soul of each Cretan: virtue and honour, while in the hierarchy of ethical values the highest position is held by friendship, second only to family.
The Cretan soul often reaches the point of exaggeration in their valour and passion for freedom, their courage, strength, love for their country and nature even in their hospitality towards strangers.
We cordially invite you to Chania and proffer you this gift which in our day and age is becoming more and more scarce. Mingle with the locals, sit with them at the same table, listen to their stories and the secrets they want to share with you. Become familiar with their exaggeration and their morals. Accept their Cretan hospitality whether that is in the form of a shot of raki on the go or a glass of wine with a bite of goat meat or even a lavish meal in a poor and humble home.
The people of Chania will overwhelm you with their love, share with you whatever they have and they will make you feel at home. It is neither a pretentious way of showing off nor a matter of habit or honour; it is simply a way of life and an articulation of their soul's desire. Nothing belongs to the Cretan. His home is all of the Cretan land and none of it has any boundaries. With joy and pride he recognizes that he himself is also a guest of honour in the castle of his generous father, Xenios Zeus, the Cretanborn.
We first came across Ktimatoemporiki Crete on the Internet. The information and layout of the site looked very professional and easy to understand. We arranged over the telephone from England, to meet up with Ktimatoemporiki's executive once we arrived in Crete. We met for a coffee in the village of Georgioupoli and he asked us questions about what we liked about Crete and what our expectations were. My partner and I had holidayed for about 6 years in Western Crete. We fell in love with the place and the people. We looked at a lot of companies, which were selling land and property in the area. However, we finally decided to use Ktimatoemporiki Crete to find our ideal home. This decision was made, based on our meeting with Ktimatoemporiki's consultants. We especially found them to be honest and completely focused on what we were asking from them. There was no pushing or trying to hard sell properties to us. We felt comfortable and relaxed about viewing possible land for building (which we were initially looking for) and homes already built. We had as I said earlier, tried other companies, however they did not conduct themselves in such a professional way. We found mostly, that they were not listening to what we were asking from them. With Ktimatoemporiki we found the home of our dreams. It took a long time for us, but we were given help and guidance all the way. We love our house and where it is situated, it has views of the bay of Georgioupoli and the White Mountains. The first time we went to house we knew it was the place for us. Neither of us wanted to leave, we would quite literately have moved in there and then. You will note that above in the questionnaire, I have said I disagree with question one (Buying property in Crete is an easy and smooth procedure). This is not because we had any problems with our purchase, in fact because of the help and guidance given by Ktimatoemporiki, ours was a very swift and smooth run operation. I do believe though, that people using less scrupulous companies could find things very different. I base this on the people we have met along the way over the years, who have not been given good advice from the companies they had chosen to use. We consider ourselves very fortunate because we have found a home, which we love so much. We also own a home in the Canary isles, which we purchased for the winter sun some years ago. Although we do holiday there from time to time, there is no comparison with our home in Crete, or the people we have met there. Our house in England is currently up for sale, we are spending more and more time at our home in Crete. The more time we spend there, the more we find to like about it. This year we spent time there in the winter, we found we enjoyed this time of the year as much as any other time. We have no hesitation in recommending Ktimatoemporiki to anyone looking to buy land or a home in Crete. We have already, on more than one occasion given their name to people we know, who are interested in living in Crete. We are confident that Ktimatoemporiki will give them the same first class service, which they have given to us.
We dreamed about owning a place in the Mediterranean for the past ten years. During that time we travelled to many Greek islands, The Algarve, Spain and Southern France. Originally we looked seriously at Northern Spain; however, after consideration of cost of homes, living and summer crowds (all very high in Spain) we decided to look at Greece because we loved the food and culture. We looked in Crete because we loved the size of the island, the mountains, the history and the ability to fly there year round.
We used the internet to find real estate companies in the west of Crete and set up appointments with representatives for three intense days of ‘looking’. We looked more land and houses than we thought possible. We did this for two long weekends over a six month period with every builder/real estate company. We found Ktimatoemporiki on the net. They were very responsive. We met executives of Ktimatoemporiki the second long weekend and what a change from the intense selling of the other companies!! They sat down with us and listened to what we were looking for in a home in Crete. We were vague in some areas so he showed us a variety of land and villas that day to help us determine, and him to understand, what we really wanted. This was really helpful. He only showed us property that met our requirements and we felt he was really looking for the right place for us, not just what he needed to sell!
Ktimatoemporiki's executives, ultimately found us a fantastic piece of land in Kokkino Chorio. It was better than we ever imagined. He helped us find a great lawyer (who we use now for everything) and a local architect and builder. We purchased the land in the fall and designed the villa over the net. We started building the following spring. As with most things in Greece, it is a different process, the business culture is so different that Northern European, and you have to be patient! Ktimatoemporiki were really helpful during this process. Whenever we had a question or felt unsure about anything, we emailed Ktimatoemporiki and they found us the answer…quickly! It was so reassuring to have someone there looking after our interests.
Over the next year we visited our building site and met with the consultants of Ktimatoemporiki. They always made sure things were going well and offered to help alleviate any concerns we had about the building, living in Crete, etc. At the end of the year we had a beautiful villa!
It’s been a year since villa was complete and every time we go there we can’t believe it is ours. We also are so thankful we had the help of Ktimatoemporiki, particularly Jacq and Brigita along the way. Helping us find what we really loved, not selling us something we didn’t want! Since then we have looked at property magazines and are pleased to find that we never would have the location and views elsewhere for the money we spent in Crete.
We love Crete…. The best part are the seasons.. the snow in the mountains and the land coming alive with the rain after a hot, dry summer.
Urbanization dramatically changes social relations. In place of real, biological relationships based on kinship, urbanized cultures organize themselves around more abstract, less stable, and inherently unequal lines. In particular, urbanized society is organized around "class," that is, economic function, rather than kinship. Economic function produces a kind of social inequality, as administrators, kings, and priests, come to occupy economically more important roles (distribution and regulation) than others. While there is really no such thing as social mobility in the ancient world, class is inherently unstable as a way of organizing society.
Urbanization also produces a split in human experience; life is divided into a public and a domestic sphere. In small tribal societies, this split is non-existent or barely evident, but urbanization produces a marked distinction between these two spheres. Almost universally, men dominate the newly formed public sphere: administration, regulation, and military organizations. Social inequality, then, gets established along sexual lines as well as economic function. This is a dramatic and traumatic change for any society to go through; literally, the entire world view has to adapt dramatically to account for this new inequality. For instance, most religions probably began as goddess religions; the new urbanized societies, however, develop god religions in their place.
Crete, so singular in everything else, seems to have avoided this. Not only does Crete seem to be a class-based society where there is little class inequality, archaeological evidence suggests that women never ceased playing an important role in the public life of the cities. They served as priestesses, as functionaries and administrators, and participated in all the sports that Cretan males participated in. These were not backyard sports, either, like croquet. The most popular sports in Crete were incredibly violent and dangerous: boxing and bull-jumping. In bull-jumping, as near as we can tell from the representations of it, a bull would charge headlong into a line of jumpers. Each jumper, when the bull was right on top of them, would grab the horns of the bull and vault over the bull in a somersault to land feet first behind the bull. This is not a sport for the squeamish. All the representations of this sport show young women participating as well as men.
Women also seem to have participated in every occupation and trade available to men. The rapid growth of industry on Crete included skilled craftswomen and entrepreneurs, and the large, top-heavy bureaucracy and priesthood seems to have been equally staffed with women. In fact, the priesthood was dominated by women. Although the palace kings were male, the society itself does not seem to have been patriarchal.
Evidence from Cretan-derived settlements on Asia Minor suggest that Cretan society was matrilineal, that is, kinship descent was reckoned through the mother. We live in a patrilineal society; we spell out our descent on our father's side—that's why we take our father's last name and not our mother's last name. While we can't be sure that Cretan society was matrilineal, it is a compelling conclusion since the religion was goddess-based.
If the prefecture of Chania were to be characterized, perhaps the most appropriate appellation would be the "Prefecture of the Gorges" since dozens of gorges traverse the mountainous regions of Chania. Indisputably, Samaria gorge is of unparalleled beauty as well as the most renowned. It is 16 km in length and its width ranges from 3.5 to 150 metres, with vertical cliffs which may reach a sheer 500 metres in height. In order to traverse it one needs approximately 5 to 6 hours and the gorge is open from May to October. It is a national park inside which one will find rare types of Cretan flora from the cypress and the pine tree to the dittany and the wildflower, while it is also the natural habitat of the wild goat or the Kri Kri. Also impressive are the layered and tectonic rock formations of limestone which are discernible on its slopes. The gorge of Agia Irene in Selino is 7.5km in length, at its most narrow points it reaches 10 metres while the height of its perpendicular walls is 500 metres. Its most distinguishable feature is its lush vegetation. The gorge of Imbrou in Sfakia is one of the most imposing, narrow and deep gorges of Crete. Its length is 7km and its width is 2 metres in some places with the height of some perpendicular walls reaching 300 metres. Its sides, which are 30 - 40 metres in height in some places, converge to leave a narrow opening of 2 - 3 metres giving the impression of a tunnel. The gorge of Topolia is magnificent and wild, unique due to its fantastic echo. It is 1500 metres in length with perpendicular walls that reach up to 300 metres and they boast many cave - like concavities, while its width fluctuates from 5 - 50 metres. There exist many other smaller but less well-known gorges whose beauty is comparable to that of the larger ones such as the gorge of Tripiti, Klados, Eligia around Samaria, Aradena, Katre, Asfendou, Agios Nektarios and Kallikrati in Sfakia, Theriso, which is close to Chania (the only one which can be crossed by car), Rokka and Polyrhenia in Kisamos, Boriana in Karanou and Dyctamos in Keramia, the only one which goes from west to east. If the appellation "Prefecture of the Gorges" is not considered justifiable then perhaps the "Prefecture of the Caves" is more appropriate as it has more than 1500 land and sea caves. A very prominent one is the cave of the Elefantos, close to Plaka in Apokoronas, which has an underwater entrance and has only partially been explored up to date. Apart from the white and red stalactites, it has become renowned worldwide for its 4 specimens of unique elephant (Elephas Chaniensis) and many of dwarf deer that lived tens of thousands of years ago. The cave of Sfakia, close to the village Asfendou, is of great historical interest since it hides rock paintings from ancient times. Then there is the cave -precipice of "Tzani" in Omalos with a length of 2,500 metres and the group of precipices in the White mountains with the most important being the 1208 - meter deep precipice of Gorgouthakas, the largest of the Balkans, with springs, waterfalls and rivers inside. The cave of the Bear or of The Virgin Mary Arkoudiotissa, close to the monastery of Gouverneto in Akrotiri, with the stalagmite which resembles a bear, the reservoir with the "holy water" - a result of a drip - and the small church which is dedicated to the Ypapanti are also worth a visit. So is that of Agios Ioannis the Hermit in the monastery of Gouverneto. One should also not miss out on: that of Agia Sophia in Topolia, with the church of the same name, with its 20 - metre high dome and its 70 - metre diameter whose surface is primarily covered by stalagmites, that of Agios Ioannis the Hermit in the Cave of Kisamos with the church of the same name which has large dimensions and a miracle - working stalactite and stalagmite, the Demonospilios in the slope of the gorge of Samaria in Gigilos, and many other smaller ones like that of Skourachlada in Keremia, of Samonas, of Kournas, and of Melidoni. These karstic shapes are only one side of the coin however. The prefecture of Chania which overlooks the sea has endless beaches to offer in its 350 km of shores to satiate even the most demanding palate: from the isolated, pristine beaches to the organized cosmopolitan ones. The beaches of Nea Chora, Chrysi Akti, Agioi Apostoloi, Agia Marina, Platanias, Gerani, Maleme, Kolympari, Kisamos, Paleochora, Fragokastalo, Kalives, Almirida, Georgioupolis and Kavros are organized and capable of offering visitors a wide variety of services, facilities and conveniences. Less crowded and more unspoilt beaches, with clean sand and crystal clear blue waters can be found by nature lovers if they distance themselves from the touristic centers. In Phalasarna, the sandy beach which was voted the best in Europe in 2002, stretches for 3km and it can be combined with a hike to the ancient port. Elafonisi, the small, low island (altitude 20 metres) is connected to the shore through a shallow isthmus with a depth of 0.60- 0.90 metres and a length of about 800 metres, the so called Perasma. That is where the common grave of the Austrian crew of "Imperetrice" which sunk in 1907 stands. In the neighbouring Kedrodasos one can enjoy the combination of sandy beaches and lush cedar forests. In Sougia, its magnificent pebbly shore, its coastal caves and its pristine waters will hold you spellbound. Balo has an exotic lagoon, a sandy white beach and shallow waters to offer. A dip in Tigani, the small island- akrotiri, can be combined with a visit to the Venetian fortress of the island Imeri Gramvousa. The small, pebbly beach in Menies, next to the archaeological site of the ancient temple of Diktynna, is ideal for hiking and a haven of peace. Finally, a place of singular beauty is considered to be that of Madara, or the infertile and barren peaks of the White Mountains. At an altitude of more than 1000 metres, it presents an absolute challenge for the hiker. It has rocky landscapes, with very little, low, bushy vegetation, quite a few wildflowers and a view that will leave you speechless. Also unique for the island is the lake of Kournas, next to the village of the same name, close to the border of the prefecture of Rethymno. It is at an altitude of 20 metres above the surface of the sea and has a circumference of 3.5 km with its deepest point being 23 metres. Osiers and Myrtle trees envelope the lake and the precipitous mountains that surround it are mirrored in its calm waters creating the illusion that it is deeper than it actually is. It is this phenomenon that is responsible for the legend that it is "bottomless".
Crete has one of the oldest and most tasty gastronomic traditions in the world, a tradition of tastes, aromas, ingredients and skills which begin from the prehistoric years and continue until today. In the international scientific community there is ever increasing discussion in search of the ideal diet for promoting the health. Among these searches more and more there is a discussion about the famous Mediterranean diet and its superiority in relation to other gastronomic traditions. In 1994 the World Health Organization, the School of Public Health of Harvard, and the Health Organization “Oldways” presented the so called Pyramid of the Mediterranean diet demonstrating scientifically that the diet of the peoples of the Mediterranean, rich in vegetables, pulses, fruits, cereals and with basic source of fats being the olive oil, constitutes to the preservation of good health and long life. The Cretan diet constitutes the recent years the subject of study, since the majority of studies demonstrates that the Cretan cuisine is the most characteristic and qualitatively high example of the Mediterranean diet. It has been shown that the inhabitants of Crete have the lowest indicators of mortality and the lowest, on a global scale, mortality from cardio-vascular illnesses and cancers. What however is the secret of the Cretan diet? The answer is that the Cretans are raised with the products of the earth, that is they eat abundant greens and vegetables, pulses and fruit, season their food with the greens and plants of the mountains of the island, such as thyme and basil, while nearly always the food is accompanied by wine from the local vines and outstandingly tasty bread, which traditionally is made with yeast. Another characteristic of the Cretan table is the variety of dishes, where no one monopolizes the taste but all together constitute a tasty whole. The most important however element is the oil, which for the Cretans and for all the peoples of the Mediterranean, constitutes the basic source of fats. Oil constitutes the base of the Cretan and Hellenic diet, and is used in the majority of plates replacing butter or other forms of oil which are used in other areas of the world. The nutritional value of the oil is great whereas it constitutes the strongest antioxidant of nature, that is protecting the organism from the oxidization and the development of free radicals which cause serious illnesses. Crete with its Mediterranean climate and good formation of its ground allows to the olive tree not only to flourish everywhere, both in plains and in mountainous areas, but also to give to the oil the best possible quality, with low acidity and wonderful aroma. The fact that the Cretans live more and have the lowest indicators in the appearance of illnesses seems to be certainly connected with the fact that they are the largest consumers of oil world-wide. It is certain that the great health and long life of the Cretans is owed to the traditional diet. A diet to which it is worth turning our attention and following.
After spending some time on Crete, discovering the beauty of the island as well as the hospitality of the Cretans and of course because of the mild climate you have decided to spend your time now on Crete. Either to enjoy your retirement, either to spend only some months here and the other time in your home country or because you really want to change your whole life and get a part of the Cretan community. Nevermind which reasons you have, you are welcome as guest and of course you should know certain things. Maybe this section will help you to make your life more easy. The first step of course is finding a new home in the right location, then moving to Crete, getting a residence permit, finding work on Crete and then start to enjoy your life.
List of useful documents to bring with you
* Your valid ID card and/or your valid passport * ID card and/or passports for all your family members who accompany you, or any equivalent provisional certificate (if appropriate) * Visa for the members of your family who are third-country nationals, if required * Extract from policy records (some public bodies for which you would like to work could require this document) * Birth certificate(s) * Evidence of the status of your family members or your dependants (normally a document issued by the competent authority of the country of origin, testifying that they are dependent on you or that they live under your roof in such a country) * Any legal documents describing your personal situation (marriage act, civil judgement, evidence that you have completed your military service, etc…) * A student card and a valid subscription to a European university if you wish to be recognised as a student * All original diplomas you have obtained in your country of origin or in another country (for study or work purposes) * All professional certificates attesting to your professional qualifications * Original working contracts establishing your professional experiences (activity and duration) including if relevant the contract under which you are currently working or are going to work * The European Health Insurance Card and/or the relevant E-forms which facilitate the continuity of your social protection in another EU country; the same for each family member * Necessary documents certifying your rights (period of work and social security cover, entitlement to social security benefits) * Recent medical certificate or any personal medical record (to ease the work of a foreign doctor), if appropriate * Your most recent bank statements to easily establish your financial conditions, if appropriate * Your driving licence * Technical specifications of the vehicle(s) you are bringing with you * Evidence of payment of VAT in the country where you bought your car, if appropriate
I'm a retired man, now living in Crete. I choose Chania Crete because is a peaceful place, unique for people that wants culture, good food, sea and mountains, happy people to speak with ....
