The most popular mountains for climbing are Ida, Lefka Ori (White Mountains) and Samaria Canyon, while Mount Dikti in the eastern part of Crete is less visited.

On lesser-known mountains, the chances of meeting other hikers are slim, which is not the case with Samaria and the White Mountains.

The northern route of Mount Dikti is most often climbed, starting from the wide plateau of Lasiti, located at 820 m above sea level. The entire area of ​​eastern Crete is called Lasiti.

The highest peak is Spati, 2148 m high.

Afentis Christos is a slightly lower peak and is 2141 m.

Dikti mountain has a limestone composition and on its northern side there are popular mountaineering routes.

In the distant past, there was a glacier on Dikti, today this is evident by large amounts of crushed rocks – moraines, which were created by the movement of the glacier.

Mount Dikti got its name in the ancient period. Dikti in translation means network. Greek legend tells us about the nymph Britomartida from Crete (the sweet maiden), who accompanied the goddess Atremida on a hunt. The legendary Cretan king Minoy fell madly in love with her and chased her all over the island for nine months. King Minos hada bad reputation of the seducer. Due to numerous infidelities, Minos’s wife Pasiphae cast a spell on him. During the act of love, instead of bodily fluids, he let snakes and scorpions into his lovers, which caused them to die in terrible agony. Britomartida persistently refused his courtships and when she saw that Minoy would catch up with her, she threw herself from a high rock into the sea, from where the fishermen pulled her out in their nets. Since then, Britomarida has been called Diktina or “the girl in the net”. She was an extremely revered deity among the local Cretans, who named this mountain after her.

As it often happens, the hiking went on with clear skies and sunny weather, until the very climb to the top of Spati, where the weather turned bad.

It was possible to see the Mediterranean Sea in the distance only through one hole in the cloud.

Cave of Diktaion Andron

On Diikti, in the village of Psichro, there is the Diktina or Psichro cave.

According to ancient mythology, none other than the mighty Zeus was born in this cave. His father, the then supreme god Chron, had a strange habit of devouring all his children immediately after birth, fearing a prophecy that his own son would dethrone him. Before Zeus was born, his mother and Chron’s wife Rhea no longer wanted to suffer her children ending up in Chron’s womb, so she decided to run away and save Zeus.

Rhea fled to Crete and gave birth to Zeus in this cave.