Kato Gouves
Enjoy your Vacations in CRETA CAMPING & get to know the Nature, History, Cultural wealth of the island, as well as the authentic Warm Cretan Hospitality...
 
 - Kato Gouves, location of CRETA CAMPING: 
A site worth visiting is the small church of St. Constantinos, which is located in a small spinney near the sea, and the Ruin of a Ceramics Laboratory of the Minoan Period. Moreover, you can visit the Cave of St. Paraskevi, located 4 km in the north-west, near the Skoteino Village, as well as Ano Gouves Village featuring the traditional narrow streets and churches.
 
For lovers of nature... The Aposelemis and Karteros Canyons,
are of particular interest to lovers of nature. 
 
Along the canyon there are platans, walnut trees & other big trees, which are combined with gardens and olive trees, while the canyons constitute a shelter for many animal and bird fauna species. Aposelemis River crosses the  Aposelemis Canyon and flows into the Unique Wetland near Kato Gouves.
 
If you are "based" on CRETA CAMPING, you can visit the plateau of Lasithi, featuring the Traditional Windmills  and Diktaio Andro cave, where Zeus was born.
 
There is also the Traditional Village of Archanes, awarded for its Wines, the extremely Traditional and Famous for its music
& and history Anogeia Village, Zaros Village with its beautiful lake and many other places to visit...
The Minoan Palace of Knossos - Faistos
The Palace of Knossos is an archaeological site that is open to visitors 
and welcomes more than 1,000,000 of them every year. You can ride a bus from the Camping site to Irakleio and then, from the same Station, 
you can take a bus to Knossos. The Palace is located only 5 km south of the city, near the banks of the Knossos Canyon. Apart from the Palace site, the wider area is also filled with archaeological findings, which are worth visiting...
 

The name Knossos survives from ancient Greek references to the major city of Crete. The identification of Knossos with the Bronze Age site is supported by tradition and by the Roman coins that were scattered over the fields surrounding the pre-excavation site, then a large mound named Kephala Hill, elevation 85 m (279 ft) from current sea level. Many of them were inscribed with Knosion or Knos on the obverse and an image of a Minotaur or Labyrinth on the reverse, both symbols deriving from the myth of King Minos, supposed to have reigned from Knossos. The coins came from the Roman settlement of Colonia Julia Nobilis Cnossus, a Roman colony placed just to the north of, and politically including, Kephala. The Romans believed they had colonized Knossos. After excavation, the discovery of the Linear B tablets, and the decipherment of Linear B by Michael Ventris, the identification was confirmed by the reference to an administrative center, ???, ko-no-so, Mycenaean Greek Knosos in Linear B, undoubtedly the palace complex. The palace was built over a Neolithic town. During the Bronze Age, the town surrounded the hill on which the palace was built.

The Venetian Fortress Koules at the entrance of the port
Its actual name is Rocca al Mare, as its founders, Venetians, named it. The Fortress was intended to protect the Venetian port, which used to be a military dockyard of the Venetians and the main commercial center of Crete.
 
n Irakleion, you can also visit the Square of Lions, the Basilica of St. Markos, St. Minas Church, the Mall, where you can buy your gifts and the sea-side avenue, center of the night life, where you can party...
 
The site of Castello a Mare was possibly first fortified by the Arabs in the 9th or 10th centuries. By the Byzantine period, a tower known as Castellum Comunis stood on the site.In 1303, the tower was destroyed in an earthquake but was repaired

In 1462, the Venetian Senate approved a programme to improve the fortifications of Candia. Eventually, the Byzantine tower was demolished in 1523, and the Castello a Mare began to be built instead. Old ships were filled with stone, and were sunk to form a breakwater and increase the area of the platform on which the fortress was built. The fortress was completed in 1540.

During the 21-year long Siege of Candia, Ottoman batteries easily neutralized the fort's firepower. The Ottomans eventually took the fort in 1669, after the Venetians surrendered the entire city. They did not make any major alterations to the fort, except for the additions of some battlements and embrasures. They built a small fort known as Little Koules on the landward side, but this was demolished in 1936 while the city was being modernized.