Lassithi Windmills

Location: Tzermiado

The spectacular vision of the white windmills on the Lassithi plateau is one of a kind. Known as the “most ancient aeolian park in the world,” the Lassithi Plateau used to be covered by over 10,000 (and, according to some sources, over 13,000) windmills that have been a source of inspiration for such artists as the Nobel laureate Odysseas Elytis.

The idea for the creation of these unique windmills originated in 1890 when a young man called Emmanouil Papadakis devised a system of harnessing the wind for the irrigation of the Lassithi Plateau. The system consisted of a wooden structure with wings and crude pumping engines, while later improvements in the 1920s replaced the wooden tower with a taller and more stable metal one.

This allowed agriculture to flourish in an area where the technological means available to simple farmers were extremely limited. That is why, in the 1970s, UN experts studied the Lassithi windmills and used them as a model for the irrigation of arid areas in Africa, India, and South America.

Today, most of them have been abandoned for the more efficient electric pumps, and only a few are still in use. However, attempts to restore them to their former glory are being made, with the creation of perforated polyester wings that are not destroyed by the wind.

Another sight is the 26 stone mills that still stand near the northern entrance to the plateau. These were never intended for irrigation purposes and were used by the residents of Lassithi to grind grain. Dating from the Venetian times, they are the oldest ones on the plateau and most of them are in ruins, except for three that have been restored.