Kydoni Gorge at Karanou

In the beautiful village Karanou in the mountainous area of Kydonia near Chania , at the foot of the White Mountains we meet the gorge Kydoni . Its name probably has to do with the area Kydonia and not with the greek word for the fruit " quince ", which is also called kydoni .

It is one of the greenest gorges in Crete with incredible vegetation with the trees reaching and exceeding twenty meters in height. It starts inside the village Karanou, at the point where the old fountain is located.

From there, a descending path crosses an impressive and centuries-old olive grove and the church of Saint Demetrius (Agios Dimitrios), that still  retains parts of old frescoes and, eventually, reaches the bed of the stream. The greenery dominates the whole route in the gorge and there are very few places, where sunlight reaches, which makes its crossing ideal on hot and sunny days.

The fairly easy path that crosses the gorge is one of the bestly signed in  Crete, with signs every 500 meters writing the length of the route.