Location information

VAI Palm Forest

25 kms from Sitia there is the unique forest of palms in a landscape of unusual tropical beauty. According to one version its derivation is owed to the Phoenician merchants who established in the neighboring Itanos, who adored the god Phoenix. According to another version it is supported that the forest has been created by the Egyptian soldiers of Ptolemeos who came as allies of Itanos in its conflict with Pressos and Ierapitna. The third version sustains that the forest was created from the seeds of dates which the Saracens pirates ate as essential food in 824 b.c., when they occupied Crete

This text is cited Nov 2003 from the Prefecture of Lassithi URL below, which contains image.

• http://www.forthnet.gr/internetcity/miss/miss-vai.... (1 img.)
Municipal Enterprise of Palekastro WebPage
• http://www.forthnet.gr/internetcity/itanos/en-vai.... (7 img.)

Vai

  Vai is 25km east of Sitia, on the east coast of Crete, and is the site of Europe's only indigenous wild date palm grove.

Crete TOURnet WebPage
• http://www.crete.tournet.gr/MainArea.jdp?ID=231 (3 img.)