"A Starscape That Is Just Amazing"

Classics professor Jerry Rutter knows Crete. For 25 of the past 30 summers he has worked on archaeological digs on the island. He has also led the classics FSP to Greece every year since 1978. Rutter rec- ommends visiting the ruins at Zakros and the Kamares Cave for a truly memorable experience.

Zakros

Zakros is the site on the eastern coast of Crete famous for its ancient Minoan ruins, such as the 3,500-year-old Palace of Zakros.

How to Get There: Rutter says that you can get anywhere on Crete via rented car, but if you're limited to public transportation, catch a bus from the town of Siteia (or Sitia) to Ano Zakro, the town closest to the ruins. From Ano Zakro, it's a 90-minute walk to the ruins, although Rutter says it might be possible to hitch a ride.

Why It's So Interesting: Ano Zakro has many little restaurants that Rutter considers worth visiting. He suggests eating at the restaurants or taking your food and eating lunch at the beach. "It's just gorgeous," he says. As for Zakros itself, make sure to check out the palace ruins. For a really special treat, though, bring your hiking boots. "If you go behind the palace there is a gorge that goes into the high mountains," he says. It's called the Gorge of the Dead—so named because the Minoans used to bury their dead in the rock shelters lining the sides of the gorge. The cliffs go up 300 to 400 feet on each side, and if you walk along the gorge for long enough you'll come to a point where the gorge splits in two. On the apex of the split you'll see a Minoan fortress. "It's a bit of a scramble, so you really feel as if you've accomplished something just by getting there," he says. "And the view from the end, down over the gorge, is pretty amazing."

Touristy Factor: Minimal, which Rutter says adds significantly to its appeal. "It's visually beautiful, the ruins are themselves interesting and the palace is visited by relatively few tourists so you feel as though you've really discovered something," he says. "This is especially true of the fortress halfway up the Gorge of the Dead."

Kamares Cave

Located several hundred feet below the summit on the southern side of Mount Ida, Kamares Cave sits 6,200 feet above the village of Kamares.

How to Get There: Catch a bus from the town of Moires to Kamares. "The path up to the cave is clearly signposted at the upper end of the village," Rutter says. The hike up the mountain to the cave should take about two and a half hours.

Why It's So Interesting: Avisit to Kamares Cave should be an overnight experience. "Think about collecting wood on the way up, because before you go to bed you should light a fire—you'll be quite chilly at night," Rutter says. "Light a fire, toast some marshmallows and, if it's a clear night, you look out over a starscape that's just amazing. There are satellites coming by and you see them like they're literally within reach. It's just incredible. Then you wake up the next morning at dawn and you have a view that is truly to die for." After you wake up, Rutter advises, make sure to finish your hike to the top of the mountain and check out the view on the other side. Then return down the mountain to Kamares, where there's a lovely breakfast place. In addition to the views, the Kamares Cave is a "Creten- known cult cave," Rutter says. There are fragments of 4,000-year-old pottery lying scattered around on the floor. 'And there's a certain weird bird that hangs out in the cave," he adds.

Touristy Factor: Outside the cave you'll find maps that show where previous visitors have traveled, but that doesn't mean the site is teeming with tourists. Spelunking is huge in Crete, but the Kamares Cave is "much less frequently traveled," Rutter says.

When you're in the area

Timing Is Everything: Although people tend to have images of Greece as a country with "sun-drenched beaches," Rutter says the summer months are unbearably hot and anyone who wants to visit during that time "needs his head examined." Definitely don't go when all the Greeks are taking their holiday during August, and avoid the winter months, which are rainy and chilly. "The optimal time to go is in the spring, late April and May, when Greece is blooming," he says.

A Beach for Nature Lovers: If you must visit Greece in the summer or winter, make sure to visit Kommos, a nearly deserted beach near the town of Pitsidia. Kommos is a protected nature area for turtles that nest there every summer. And if you're visiting in February or March, "its one of the great places to catch cuttlefish," Rutter says. The zebra-striped, squid-like fish come to Kommos to mate in the shallow water. "When they mate they communicate by changing colors," Rutter says. "If you go cuttlefishing on the night of the full moon—the best night to go cuttlefishing—you get this light display where you can see them turning different colors."

Live On the Edge: Visit the Ha Gorge, home to a Minoan village built atop a series of ledges 1,500 feet high. It is accessible via cliffwalkways that are only several feet wide at points. "There's usually a stiff wind blowing," Rutter warns.

Crete, Greece

City of White The vernacular architecture of Ghadames, in Libya, features whitewashed buildings that reflect the desert heat, according to government professor Diederik Vandewalle.