Geropotamos (Libyan Sea)

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Geropotamos
View from Phaistos to the northeast. The course of the geropotamos can be seen from the reeds.

View from Phaistos to the northeast. The course of the geropotamos can be seen from the reeds.

Data
location Crete , Heraklion Regional Unit
River system Geropotamos (Libyan Sea)
Source height 450  m
muzzle Libyan Sea Coordinates: 35 ° 3 ′ 30 ″  N , 24 ° 45 ′ 7 ″  E 35 ° 3 ′ 30 ″  N , 24 ° 45 ′ 7 ″  E
Mouth height 0  m
Height difference 450 m
Bottom slope 9 ‰
length 50 km
Communities Gortyna , Festos

The Geropotamos ( Greek Γεροπόταμος ( m. Sg. ) 'Strong River') is a river on the Greek island of Crete .

With a length of around 50 kilometers, it is the longest river on the island and carries water all year round. It is located in southern Crete in the Heraklion regional district .

The Geropotamos rises at an altitude of about 450 meters, flows through the Messara plain and flows into the southern Mediterranean at the village of Tymbaki .

Its water is taken from the fertile, but rain-free Messara plain to irrigate numerous agricultural areas, so that in summer it only forms a thin trickle. Various types of vegetables and other crops are grown on its banks (partly in greenhouses). The edges of the Messara plain are quite densely populated with smaller villages, where agriculture is still dominant and there is hardly any tourism.

The ruins of the Roman city ​​of Gortyn are just a few kilometers north of the river; the excavation sites of the Minoan settlement Phaistos are on a ridge south of the river near the mouth. In Venetian times the geropotamos was called malonitis .

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