In early January 2015, snow on Psiloritis drew so many Cretans up the mountain that the road above Anogeia turned into one long, slow line of cars. Local videographer Sokratis Damoulakis filmed the scene from the air, and his clip shows a side of Crete that summer visitors rarely imagine: a white mountain landscape crossed by a dark ribbon of traffic.
The Psiloritis snow-day video
Damoulakis uploaded the video to his YouTube channel on 5 January 2015, titling it “incredible traffic jam, Psiloritis, Anogeia” in Greek and English. Snow is a real event on Crete. When the high ground turns white, many islanders drive up into the mountains to see it and play in it, and around the New Year and Epiphany holidays the narrow mountain roads fill quickly.
Psiloritis, Crete’s highest mountain
Psiloritis, the ancient Mount Ida, rises to 2,456 metres (8,058 ft) in the Rethymno regional unit and is the highest mountain on Crete. It also has the greatest topographic prominence of any mountain in Greece. The massif is part of the Psiloritis Natural Park, a member of UNESCO’s Global Geoparks Network.
The mountain carries some of the deepest layers of Greek myth. The Idaean Cave (Idaion Antron) on its slopes is one of the places where tradition says Zeus was born and raised; another tradition places the birth in the Psychro Cave on the Lasithi Plateau. The University of Crete’s Skinakas Observatory stands on the massif at 1,750 metres, and at Zominthos archaeologists have found the highest-altitude Minoan villa yet discovered.
Between the mountain’s peaks lies the Nida Plateau, at about 1,400 metres and roughly 22 km from Anogeia. It is used as summer grazing land, and in winter its snowfields are used for downhill skiing.
Anogeia, mountain village of music and resistance
Anogeia sits at 738 metres on the northern slopes of Psiloritis and had 2,240 residents in 2021. For centuries its people were mostly shepherds and goatherds, and the village remains famous across Hellas for Cretan music, above all the lyra. The singer and lyra player Nikos Xylouris, “Psaronikos”, was born here, and every July the Yakinthia festival is held on the Nida Plateau.
Anogeia was also the heart of the Cretan resistance during the German occupation. A liberation committee formed here in 1941, and the abduction of the German general Heinrich Kreipe was planned in the village. In August 1944 German forces destroyed most of Anogeia in reprisal; 104 of its people were killed between 1941 and 1944. In 1946 Greece awarded the village the War Cross, First Class.
Driving up Psiloritis in winter
A sunny day on the coast can mean ice and drifting snow at 1,000 metres. Check the forecast and road reports before you leave, carry snow chains and warm clothing, and start early on weekends and holidays, when the roads above Anogeia can fill just as they did in January 2015.
For another winter scene shaped by transport, watch a Canadian freight train meeting deep snow. For snow in everyday streets, explore Julien Ratel’s Akureyri photographs.
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