The Messara plain in Crete

A panoramic view of a lush olive grove, featuring rows of olive trees stretching across a rolling landscape with distant mountains and a partly cloudy sky.

The Messara plain is the largest plain on Crete. It extends over almost 400km2, some 60km long and 7km wide, between the Ida massif in the north and the Asteroussia mountains in the south.

Today, the Messara plain is commonly referred to as the “orchard of Crete”, with many farms taking advantage of its fertile soil. Cereal crops, abundant in the 19th century, have now been replaced by olive groves, vineyards and greenhouses.

Nearby, Rotasi is one of the towns mentioned by Homer in the Illiad as having taken part in the Trojan War.

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