Preveli palm beach
The palm beach of Preveli ( Greek Φοινικόδασος της Πρέβελης Finikodasos tis Prevelis ) is a sandy beach lined with palm trees on the south coast of the Greek Mediterranean island of Crete . It is located in the municipality of Agios Vasilios in the Rethymno regional district , not far from the Moni Preveli monastery , the name of which has passed on to him.
Behind the beach, the Megalopotamos , a mountain stream also called Kourtaliotis coming from the Kouroupa Mountains , forms the small pond or lake of Preveli ( Λίμνη Πρέβελη Limni Preveli ), which extends into the gorge behind it. As on the beach of Vai in eastern Crete, the Cretan date palm ( Phoenix theophrasti ) forms a natural palm grove in this gorge .
Geographical location
The palm beach of Preveli is located on a small bay of the Libyan Sea , 23 kilometers south of the prefecture capital Rethymno on the north coast of Crete and 8.5 kilometers southeast of Plakias , the seat of the municipality of Finikas on the bay of Plakias . It forms the southern end point of the approximately two-kilometer-long Preveli Gorge , which the Megalopotamos cut into the rock over millions of years up to its mouth on the palm beach. To the north of this gorge is a hilly plain, before the Kouroupa massif rises from four kilometers from the sea to a height of 983 meters, only interrupted by the Kourtaliotiko and Frati gorges , from which the Megalopotamos and its eastern tributary, the Bourtzoukos or Kissamos , head towards the south coast.
On both sides of the Libyan Sea , the palm beach is shielded from the neighboring coastal sections by the foothills of the rock massifs that border the Preveli Gorge, which extend almost to the water . The closest sea accesses are to the east of the Drymiskiano Ammoudi beach, 400 meters away , and to the west, the bay of Schinaria, which is already five kilometers away . Above the rocky coast in the direction of Schinaria , the buildings of the Piso Moni Preveli monastery are located 170 meters above sea level . The monastery is 1.5 kilometers from the mouth of the Megalopotamos . Through an elaborate canal system, starting from the southern exit of the Kourtaliotiko Gorge , the inhabitants of the monastery were able to make the water of the mountain stream usable.
description
The mouth and the lower gorge of the Megalopotamos are owned by the Moni Preveli monastery , which is why the name “Preveli” is used for both the beach and the gorge. However, the areas are not used by the monastery. To the northwest above the gorge are the ruins of the old Kato Moni Preveli monastery , which was burned down during an uprising against Turkish rule in the early 19th century. At the mouth, between the trees on the east bank behind the beach, there is the no longer used Agios Savvas chapel from the 14th to 15th centuries.
From about 400 meters in front of the mouth, the Megalopotamos expands to a lagoon-like small lake, the Limni Preveli . The approximately 15,000 m² water surface was created by the very flat course of the brook and constant sand alluvial on the sea, which dammed it in front of the beach. The banks are lined with reeds , flowering oleander bushes , mastic bushes , eucalyptus and the palm forest of the Cretan date palm that characterizes the mouth . Immediately in front of the seashore, palm trees and many tamarisk trees provide shade, under which loungers are offered for beach guests. The entire area is a strongly threatened biotope , the sensitive flora and fauna of which can hardly cope with the mass influx of tourists in the summer months.
The palm beach of Preveli has an approximate length of 210 meters in an approximately east-west orientation, while it is up to 50 meters wide. The sand is a bit dark, gray in color. Since the beach attracts many visitors, except in winter, and some locals earn their living by renting pedal boats on the "lake", they are often busy with increasing the congestion effect at the estuary by sandwork. The beach becomes more rocky on the sides and merges into the bordering rocks. On the east side, a single, mushroom-shaped boulder juts out of the shallow sea water that surrounds it.
On the western side of the Megalopotamos there is a small tavern behind the beach under the palm trees. There is no bridge over the stream in the estuary area. You have to wade through it to get to the other bank. The outflow of the stream into the Libyan Sea is on the rocks on the western side of the beach. In the back of the beach, on the eastern shore of Lake Preveli , some dropouts are still camping today , who, especially in the 1970s and 1980s, dominated the entire remote beach, living in small huts. Camping in this area has been strictly prohibited since the area around the beach and the gorge were declared a nature reserve in the mid-1990s . Controls are rare, however.
Forest fire
From 21st to 22nd August 2010 there was a forest fire in the gorge behind the beach, in which the palm grove burned down to a large extent. The local representative of the environmental protection organization WWF, Kaloust Paragamian, said that about 70 percent of the trees are still alive. However, it can be assumed that the trees will only recover from the fire in 20 to 30 years. Nevertheless, the Greek Ministry of the Environment reported on April 1, 2011 that the palm population had practically completely recovered and all palm trees had knocked out.
archeology
In the early summer of 2009, stone tools were found on the western slopes of the Preveli Gorge by a team of American archaeologists, the oldest specimens of which were dated to an age of 130,000 years. Remains of the creators of the artefacts processed into scraping and splitting tools were not found, so conclusions about their type ( Neanderthals or earlier anatomically modern humans ) are not possible. Since Crete had no connection to the mainland at any time in question, this discovery amounts to a scientific sensation: The manufacturers of the tools must have reached the island by sea.
Access
For many years the only way to get to the beach was via a dangerous path over the rocks on the west side, which has since been expanded and secured. Above the gorge in the direction of the rear monastery Piso Moni Preveli , a parking lot was created not far from the road. Halfway to the beach there is a small rest area with a view of the entire bay and the lower area of the Preveli gorge .
The route, which is easier today, leads over the cliffs on the east side from the neighboring Drimiskiano Ammoudi beach . However, getting there is more difficult. From the road to Piso Moni Preveli , a road branches off above the Preveli gorge at the Great Bridge , the only artificial passage over the Megalopotamos next to the dam there , which then leads unpaved in the direction of Drimiskos and Drimiskiano Ammoudi .
Excursion boats from Plakias and Agia Galini bring many day-trippers to the palm beach, so that this is always quite busy in the season. Plakias boats also take passengers on the Damnoni Bay jetty . On the beach of Preveli , visitors are dropped off the ships on gangways , as there is no jetty there.
The most arduous route to the palm beach is through the Preveli gorge . Although marked as a hiking trail on many maps, it can only be expected of hikers who enjoy climbing and swimming. In the gorge there are some bottlenecks to overcome, which are blocked by larger boulders and dammed water basins.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Eberhard Fohrer: Kreta , page 736, Michael Müller Verlag, 16th edition 2006
- ↑ Preveli Beach Nature Reserve. www.projekt-pr.de, archived from the original on March 27, 2008 ; Retrieved April 23, 2010 .
- ↑ 83 forest fires in one day - Greece newspaper of August 23, 2010. (No longer available online.) Www.griechenland.net, archived from the original on May 12, 2013 ; Retrieved August 24, 2010 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Fire damaged Cretan palm beach. derstandard.at, accessed on August 24, 2010 .
- ↑ ΤΟ ΕΓΚΛΗΜΑ ΣΤΗΝ ΠΡΕΒΕΛΗ: Έδωσαν 1,4 εκατ. ευρώ για πυρανίχνευση, αλλά το πρόγραμμα δεν υλοποιήθηκε ποτέ! www.cretalive.gr, accessed August 24, 2010 .
- ↑ Photos of the fire damage. www.goodnet.gr, archived from the original on May 28, 2012 ; Retrieved August 27, 2010 .
- ^ John Noble Wilford: On Crete, New Evidence of Very Ancient Mariners. in The New York Times , February 15, 2010, accessed September 20, 2010 .
- ↑ Κνκλοφόρησε το ΚΡΗΤΙΚΟ ΠΑΝΟΡΑΜΑ. rethemnos.gr, April 10, 2010, accessed September 20, 2010 (Greek).
- ^ Thomas F. Strasser et al .: Stone age seafaring in the Mediterranian. Hesperia 79 (2010) - The Journal of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, accessed September 26, 2010 .
- ↑ Preveli Beach. www.kreta-reise.info, accessed on April 23, 2010 .
Coordinates: 35 ° 9 ′ 8 ″ N , 24 ° 28 ′ 26 ″ E