Lasithi plateau
High mountain-ringed valley of fertile fields once dotted with thousands of white-sailed water-pumping windmills.
Location
About this audio guide
This guide to the Lasithi plateau near Heraklion follows the thousands of white-sailed windmills that once pumped water across this mountain-ringed valley, and the two Cretan inventors behind them, one who first fitted a stone mill with a pump, the other who redesigned it in iron so the sails could turn with the wind. It traces what happened once diesel pumps arrived and the sails began to fall silent. A handful of restored mills still stand near the old lakebed's fields today.
This audio guide was created using AI.
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