Lefka Ori

Seen from the summit region of Pachnes

The White Mountains (Greek Λευκά Όρη to the White Mountains German, Greek also Madares ( Μαδάρες ) called ) is the geographically largest mountain range on the Greek island of Crete. Its highest summit, the Pachnes is with 2454 meters just a few meters lower than that of Psiloritis further east Crete. The central summit region of the White Mountains is one of the few European desert areas.

Geography

The White Mountains are located in Western Crete, south of the city of Chania. The mountain massif measures in an east-west extent of almost 30 km, from the beginning of its northern slopes is 20 km to the south coast of Crete. Almost the entire mountain range is part of the church today and historical region of Sfakia.

Almost 50 peaks of the White Mountains are higher than 2000 m, they enclose over 20 major canyons, the most famous of these is the 13 km long Samaria Gorge, which, starting at Xiloskalo, deep cuts into the western part of the mountain and at Agia Roumeli on Libyan Sea ends. In the northwest, the White Mountains surround the Omalos Plateau, the second largest plateau of Crete.

The European long distance path E4 crosses the massif of the White Mountains on the whole width of Agia Irini in the west to the east Askifou. It runs through the Omalos level, then at the northern edge of the National Park of Samaria along to the region north of the summit of the Pachnes, from where he performs at the summit of Kastro pass down to the plateau of Askifou.

The high desert

The central part of the White Mountains is almost universal heights of over 2000 m is an edaphic high desert ( gr Ορεινή Έρημος, mountain desert '). Although fall especially during the cold season sufficient rainfall, but with snowmelt seeps all the water immediately in the soil, so that the normally to be found at this altitude vegetation ( such as in the same high neighboring Mount Ida ) can not flourish. The crystalline limestone of this area is extremely susceptible to erosion and weathered quickly on sand grain size, which led to the formation of a penetrated by conical hills and sinkholes and unique landscape in the northern hemisphere. Rackham and Moody compare them with ice-free landscapes of Antarctica and highlight the striking tendency of the hills and valleys of uniform 32 °. At the beginning of the 20th century this inaccessible area was so poorly understood that it was not sure which is the highest peak of the massif. First, researchers in this field were botanists who were interested in the rare vegetation of the high desert, made up to fifty percent of occurring only here ( endemic ) species.

The Madares

The peak area of ​​the White Mountains is in the height regions above the treeline 1600-2000 meters surrounded to the north and east by a scantily -clad landscape that a modest grazing permits without feeding during the summer months: the Madares ( Μαδάρες ). Also this rocky area without spectacular rocky ridges or ravines traversed by Sinklöchern, some the size of a small plateau (eg Livadas ). Geologically based on the Madares Plattenkalk, which is not as fast as the eroded crystalline limestone of the high desert and thus better growth opportunities for plant offers. The Madares are the highest cultural landscape of Crete. In the Katsiveli Valley can still be found at 1940 meters altitude testimonies of former cultivation as enclosures and walls. In some of the larger sinkholes still up in the 50s of last century, potatoes were grown.

The dominant structure in the Madares is the so-called Mitato ( μιτάτο, plural μιτάτα ), which served as a shelter for the shepherds and especially for cheese production. The Mitata are stacked without mortar stone and have a circular plan. The roof is defined as a carrier-free Gewölbekonstrunktion of overlapping flat stones, what the possible size of a Mitato limited constructive. Usually, several Mitata are built close together and surrounded by stone sheep pens.

The cheese making was formerly the main occupation of the " Madarites " known is the spicy sfakiotische Graviera or soft cheese myzithra. In the Mitata the milk was boiled, the molded, dried and stored cheeses. The cheeses Madares got their special taste by the fact that the sheep could eat almost only spicy herbs in the higher elevations such as the Malotyra herb, known as " Cretan mountain tea ".

The name derives from the ancient Greek Madares μαδαρός on what " naked " or " plucked " means here probably meaning " free of trees ." It is sometimes so used by the local population as a term for the entire massif of the White Mountains as a synonym. The mountain range is therefore named after the region that operated for grazing people was the most important. In this sense, the term is also referred to in the naming of the catering industry ( " Hotel Madhares "). Another different use of the term can be found in the travel and tourism sector: here are often the grazed areas and the high desert together referred to as Madares, sometimes even only the high desert, the latter is a clear misuse ( " Crossing the Madares ").

Geology

The White Mountains emerged as all the mountains of Crete and the South Aegean island arc in the geological period of the early Tertiary as a result of the alpidic orogeny. They consist mainly of limestone. Formerly adjacent layered deposits were pushed over each other and formed the mighty mountain ranges of whose rock is formed mainly from the lithographic series, overlain by rocks of the Phyllite - Quartzite series, the Trypali series, the Pindos series and eventually a crust of ophiolites.

Fauna, flora and vegetation

In the White Mountains, and the last Cretan population of wild goat Kri-Kri, especially in the reserve on the slopes of the Samaria gorge. Other populations of the Cretan wild goat were resettled on small, Crete islands. Also, some of the last couple of almost extinct bearded vulture nest on the slopes of ravines.

The White Mountains home to the largest contiguous forest area of Crete. The tree inventory is composed mainly of Calabrian pine (Pinus brutia ) (especially in the south and west facing slopes ), cypress (Cupressus sempervirens) ( especially in the east ) and the Cretan maple (Acer sempervirens). Also noteworthy stocks of Kermes oak (Quercus coccifera ), and the rare Cretan zelkova ( Zelkova abelicea, Ambelitsiá ) can be found. Above the tree line, which, as is also in the other Cretan mountains, in the White Mountains at 1650 m, there is vegetation on limestone from subalpine thorn cushion corridors with Narrow- Astragalus ( Astragalus angustifolius ), cushion - bugloss ( Anchusa cespitosa ) and Mannsschild hedgehog cushion ( Acantholimon androsaceum ). The high desert with its very sparse, low vegetation and its high proportion of endemic, sometimes very locally common plants, however, is bound to dolomite. - Another occurrence focus of endemic plants are the walls of the canyons, whose sheltered position the plants enabled the survival of several climatic fluctuations.

History

No other region of Crete is so remote and inaccessible as the White Mountains, many of the mountain villages could be reached until recently only on foot or by mule, the few places on the steep slopes on the southern coast of Crete by boat. The inhabitants of the region, the Sfakiots were notorious whether their ferocity and intransigence against external authorities. The White Mountains were in the history of Crete always retreat against outside invaders, the inhabitants of some areas boast that she has never been a stranger dominated in its history - neither under the Venetian, still under the Turkish and ultimately not even under the German occupation. During World War II the White Mountains were a refuge of the Cretan resistance and hiding of British agents.