Fourni

The wider region of the village Alikambos, at Chania, we meet several caves because of the limestone bedrock. One of these caves is Fourni located in the village. Fourni unlike other caves of the region does not bear cave decoration as it is really poor. However it surely has the most important history of all, because it is located inside the village and, therefore, served as a shelter for the locals, especially during the bombardments of the Second World War. Fourni entrance is not easy to access, due to being blocked by rubbish and vegetation.

Locals, especially the elders, describe it as a very deep cave that probably crosses the entire village from beneath their homes and no one knows its actual depth. In fact Fourni is neither deep, nor spacious and it is actually an elongated rock shelter. Exploration requires crawling on stones and animal bones and it is really surprising how so many civilians came in during the war. The narrow and quite dangerous burrow in the conglomerate rock ends at about 10 meters from the entrance, without forming secondary rooms or galleries.