By John Freedman
Written March 6, 2021, never properly posted
Reposted April 13, 2021
Aside from the Sabbionara, this general area in old Chania doesn’t get a lot of attention. I suspect, at least in part, it is because you rarely if ever see it from inside the city’s fortification walls. Most of the time sea waters wash up quite closely to the wall – sometimes up against the wall itself. Unless you have a boat to take you out to sea to give you perspective, you really aren’t going to see what my wife Oksana and I saw yesterday. Actually, there’s another reason for that, a sad one, and I’ll get to that right away. We found a gorgeous, huge old sea turtle who had died while stranded during low tide. I guessed his age at around 100 years old, as did an official whom we called to carry away the carcass so that the rotting body would not be strewn around the area by seagulls. It was a very sad discovery, especially since, initially, when we first espied him, we thought we might be taking part in a lovely animal recovery act. That didn’t happen. The poor old guy was dead, although as beautiful and majestic in death was he surely was in life. See the final two photos below for a last glimpse at this noble animal. Now, in this area, there are low tides and there are low tides. The biggest low tide of the year comes around late winter/early spring, and that’s where we are now. But I have never seen a low tide to match this one. The sea has drawn back all the way to the outer reef, probably a good half a kilometer or more. You can walk out there, turn around and catch an extremely rare view of Chania. With the spectacular White Mountains (Lefka Ori) glinting white and silver in the background, it makes for quite a sight. What is usually knee- or waist-deep water is now rocks and pools. That turtle was not the only guy we found stranded yesterday. I also found a baby eel and a small octopus. I was able to get the eel back into deeper water, but the octopus was afraid of me and locked himself underneath a rock with his suction cups so that I could not get him out. I’m afraid his prospects weren’t good. The northeast fortifications of Chania, are, of course, a part of what were once continual walls (but for the entry to the harbor by sea) surrounding the city on all sides. There were only three entrance gates on land (East, South and West). If viewed from the air, the fortifications looked rather like a distorted five-point star. The walls that we see today were built by architect Michele Sanmichele over a 22-year period, 1536-1538. A bastion or rampart known alternatively as Sabbionara or the Mocinego bastion was added to the northeast corner between the years of 1591-96. I have written more about Sabbionara elsewhere on this site. As you will see when you peruse the photos below, the vantage point I had yesterday is quite amazing. From one spot you see not only the Koum Kapi neighborhood, the Sabbionara, and the outside fortification wall, but you can peer into the harbor and see the famed docks, or arsenal, Ta Neoria, built from 1467 to 1607 (see my blog on Ta Neoria on this site, too). And then, although this won’t all fit into a single photo, you continue turning to your right (west) and see the stately, but understated, lighthouse (O Faros) that was built in the late 1500s and rebuilt tastefully by the Egyptians between 1824 and 1832. Look through the photos below and you will see all I mention and more.
Copyright © 2021 by John Freedman. Should you wish to copy, repost or reuse anything from this blog (the photos included), please ask. I have never said no to this day. But, boy, does it make me mad when I see people publishing my work on their blogs/pages as if it were their own! Repost copyright © 2021 by John Freedman.
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