Palmetis Pothole
The sinkhole Tafkos Palmeti is located on the Strouboulas Plateau and its depth is 44m. The name comes from the Christian rebel Giannis Palmetis (1790 – 1834 had his shelter at Strouboulas and watched the road to Rethimnon. When he was seeing an Aga passing by, he was shooting him, he was taking from him all he had and was throwing him in the gulf, which from then is called the Tafkos of Palmetis, in order to exterminate every trail. The tradition says that once he had caught 7 Agas at the same time and made them jump across the tafkos and as an exchange he would spare the life to those who would make it. One of them almost did make it. He reached the opposite edge and grasped a branch. Palmetis cut the branch and the Turk…was excluded from the beneficent arrangement.
The Turkish administration discovered the reason why the Agas were disappearing only when someone managed to get away from Palmetis and revealed his nest. They couldn’t arrest him though. Years later, in 1834, while Palmetis was walking unarmed and carefree in Heraklion, the men of Mustafa Naisli pasha, besieger of Arkadi, caught him, killed him and threw him in the sea.
This information does not constitute an invitation to visit the cave, but a simple information about the beauties of Crete. If you are not an experienced caver or if you have not taken all security measures required, do not attempt to enter the cave.
