The Alistrati Cave - Nature's Cathedral

You might have visited stalactites caves before, but I can promise you: Nothing like Alistrati! The mere size of it is astonishing. The cave covers an area of 25 000 square meters and though only a small part is open to the public it still feels like visiting an under ground Notre Dame.

The locals have always known about the cave. Especially would hunters visit them because of the presence of wild pigeons. It wasn’t until 1975 that the municipality took action and invited speleologists to explore the cave and in 1998 part of it was opened to the public.

Is it claustrophobic? That’s the question everyone asks (including me!) before visiting the cave for the first time. The answer is no! It’s so huge and the height is between eight and 30 meters – I promise you, you won’t feel closed in. Besides, it’s rather civilized, too. You walk on a broad, paved path (great if you have a child in pushchair with you) for about one kilometre into the ground; the deepest point is approximately 70 meters under ground. And the temperatures is comfortable, too – approximately 20 degrees Celsius whether it’s summer or winter.

Make sure you don’t get in together with a Greek school class. The cave is a very popular destination for school excursions and you’ll be bored to death listening to all the talking in Greek (unless of course you understand the language!). Insist on getting an English speaking guide!

From Eleftheres it takes about 40 minutes to drive to the cave. You need a car to get there and if you don’t have your own you can rent ours.

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