The word 'hora' is used all over Greece to denote
the main town in an area, as this town is to the 'eparchy' (administrative district within a prefecture) of Sfakia. During the evacuation of the Allied Forces here, some 18,000
men passed through here on the way to their liberty, (escaping the fate of some 12,000 who were taken prisoner and the approximate 2000 killed). As noted earlier, the Cretan
villagers who helped them were dealt with cruelly afterward, many of them executed, as a memorial here commemorates, with the skulls on display.
This town is quite small, and though it has a lot of rooms and plenty of tourist facilities, there isn't much of a beach. There's a better beach at Sweetwater an hour to the west along a path by the water (accessible also by boat) and the Cave of Dhaskaloyiannis in the cliffs, named for the revolutionary leader (during the Greek War of Independence) who minted rebel coins there. Dhaskaloyiannis (dhaskalos meaning 'teacher' and 'Yiannis' the Greek equivalent of 'John) was born in Anopoli (see above) and was a wealthy shipowner who was promised support by the Russian if he staged a revolt in Sfakia, but the support wasn't forthcoming, and the 1770 revolt was a disaster, with its leader (who surrendered) brutally executed and Sfakia subjugated for the first time by the Turks.
There are boats to the island of Gavdhos from here, which is the southernmost landmass in Europe (see details at end of Hania article).
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