Milopotamos

The province Mylopotamos is famous throughout Crete for the production of charcoal. In many villages, you will meet the kilns where wood is converted to charcoal with a very tedious process. Originally the cut firewood is stacked to form a hemispherical pile. Because the wood will get burned without flame, the wood should be placed touching each other as much as possible, so as to spread the fire from wood to wood.

The gaps between the large wood pieces are filled with smaller sticks. Then the bottom side of the heap is covered with dried (flammable) scrub and the remaining stack is covered by fresh green branches and leaves. Then, the stack gets covered with soil, which is wet (for keeping dust down). Finally, a small hole is used for setting fire and the woods bake for 20 days! It is very important that the furnace gets minimum air, so as not to have a flame. Therefore, someone must be always on the site to supervise and water any upcoming flame. Therefore, you will usually see some primitive lodgings for housing the caretakers.