Mili Gorge — Attraction in Municipality of Rethymnon

The very green and full vegetation Mili Gorge is a stunning green oasis near the town of Rethymno. Mili Gorge It is actually a ravine, stretches along the river bed, which leads water all year round.

The settlements were mentioned for the first time in 1643 durning the Venetian rule. Later, the Ottoomans preferred to inhabit the village of Kato Mili.

At the middle of the canyon we meet the deserted village Mili (i.e. mills) which is divided into two neighborhoods, Ano Mili (Upper mills) and Kato Mili (Lower mills). Its name is taken after the water mills that were housed in the gorge, about 30. The villagers were mostly millers and almost all cereals in the region and the surrounding villages were milled at Mili.

The last residents left Mili in 1972 and since then the village is deserted. Apart from the mills and old houses, there is a plethora of impressive churches.

Very nice is the chapel of St. John (Agios Ioannis). The chapel is located under a rocky outcrop. Next is at the cemetery chapel of the five holy virgins (Agies Pente Parthenes) and the chapel of Agia Paraskevi.

The hike through the canyon takes about 1h30 minutes and is also suitable...

Mili gorgeous is stunning place to visit, we got the bus up to the top from Rethymno bus station and walked right down to the bottom and then back to the main road, you can walk back up and the bus will take you back to the station, bus ticket cost €2 each way, so cheap as chips, there is lots to see and on a really hot day there are lots of shady spots to stop, goats wander around the gorge and there are lots of little waterfalls around, we took our time and walked from top to bottom in about 3 hours with stops for rest, photos and to have a drink, take water with you and a sturdy pair of trainers or walking shoes though, there are 2 taverna bars at the gorge, one at the top and the one we went to was the Banana taverna at the bottom, the guys there are amazing, the food delicious and a nice cold beer hits the spot after a long walk, you need to take cash though as they don’t have WiFi to accommodate card payments, we loved it so much , we did the walk...

Beautiful gorge with lots of shade and exciting trail over a variety of paths. You have to cross the stream that runs down the entire gorge several times by bridge, log or rocks and pebbles strewn around the water, which makes it really interesting. Ruins of the houses are accessible. The only downside for me was the amount of tubes running along the stream. I understand they are for irrigation and wateraccess throughout the gorge but they are an eyesore, especially the ones obviously not in use or bits and pieces that are still laying around that could be cleaned up. Overall challenging but doable. Passed quite some people with small kids. We started at entrance 1. Crossed a tavern quite soon but there's also one passed the exit (that you can also start at tho). From this entrypoint its mostly downstream so going back up was a bit exhausting 😅. You could ask the cafe at the exit to...