Rethymnon’s Lighthouse | 09 Sep 2014
35.2500° N | 24.5833° E
Picturesque Rethymnon is Crete’s 3rd largest city and located approximately equidistant between Heraklion and Chania on the north coast of the island. Behind the city rise the island’s imposing high mountains, before the city runs an almost 8km long and very wide sandy beach. It has an impressive fortress overlooking the sea built by the Venetians after a series of pirate raids had devastated the town, a skyline punctured with the minarets of Ottoman mosques scattered around labyrinthine of the old town together with the of wood-balconied Venetian and Turkish houses and a very attractive old harbour in which a beautiful lighthouses stands out. The lighthouse has puzzled or confused many about its origin. Some argue that it is Turkish, some others Venetian. However recent studies have shown that the origin is Egyptian and was built in 1838 during the Egyptian occupation.