Makasi Gate
The Gate Makasi (meaning "switchman" in Turkish) is a military gate of the Venetian Walls of Heraklion, the tunnel of which had a length of 110 meters. The tunnel leads to the eastern low square of Martinengo bastion, that housed the canons that protected the bastion Bethlehem.
The tunnel is currently used as a memorial for the National Resistance in Crete during the Second World War, as here the Germans imprisoned hundreds of locals. On July 15, 1943, when the so-called Big Blockade of Crete took place, dozens of Christians and Jews were captured and imprisoned here.
On November 4, 1943, many prisoners were transferred to Mauthausen concentration camp, while other 600 boarded on June 8, 1944 in the ferry boat Tanais to Piraeus (Athens). However in the open sea, the Germans got rid of the 600 souls by sinking the ship and then announced that the British navy sank ship. The Germans never paid for these atrocities, just like all such stories in Crete.
