Vorinos Cave at Kalo Nero
The small settlement of Kalo Nero at province Sitia is located at the driest part of East Crete. Despite the lack of vegetation, the scenery around the small village has unique beauty and wildness. The area of Kalo Nero is itself is a small speleological paradise with about 50 large and small caves. Many of them were previously used as sanctuaries, so you will hear many stories for discoveries of gold objects and painted jars filled with treasures by illegal excavators, who always arrive much earlier than the slow-moving Greek state.
One of the many caves is the Vorinos (north) Spilios located just opposite the very old monastery that adorns the area, Panagia Zoodochos Pigi, on the slope east and higher than the temple. Access to the cave is not particularly difficult, and requires climbing only 10 minutes away from the monastery. The large opening of the cave is visible from every corner of the village. As we look towards the cave from the monastery, a few meters above we see a striking rock with beautiful and unique shape that gives the impression of sitting on another rock, although they are a single solid rock. The beautiful rock is named Kavalaris (Horseman) and is the symbol of the region.
Walking up the slope to the cave we meet traces of ancient ceramics. Vorinos Spilios is not too deep nor has any special decoration but has a very beautiful shape and some nice colorful stripes in the limestone rocks. The blackened roof indicates that the cave was used either for worship. Vorinos Spilios with its distinctive rock, Kavalaris rock, another impressive cave about 50 meters to the north, and the spring of the area that was the cause of the creation of the monastery first and the settlement afterwards, all together constitute the evidence that this region played a very important role, since ancient times.
