Malaxa War Shelters
Malaxa village is the entrance to the region of Keramia by Chaniaa and is built on a very strategic point. It is the only passage to the mainland and it is built atop Mount Verekynthos, having views to the region of Chania and Souda Bay. Therefore, the Germans during the Second World War built many shelters, only the village hosts three. One is located just above the village cemetery and its entrance is now blocked by debris.
The other two are open and someone can explore them. The one of them is located just behind the church of Saint George. The entrance is elongated and resembles a Minoan vaulted tomb. The second is located at the site of an old tavern called Panorama. This is larger in length and has two entrances. It runs very deep in the mountain and forms the letter Π, housing some small rooms. In many parts we meet reinforcing stone walls. The corridors are quite wide, making it much more spacious than the rest shelters. What however makes the second shelter really special is withing the corridors we meet two different natural caves, rich in stalactites. They are a small sample of underground caverns that one can neet at areas such as Kerameia or Akrotiri by Chania. After the war, the shelters were used for natural cheese maturing, , however today they are full of garbage. The shelters today are owned and controlled by the Navy.
