Gulf of Mirambelos

The Gulf of Mirabello cuts into eastern Crete, beneath hills where ancient communities such as Lato once stood. Its shores were a center of copperworking as early as the third millennium BC. In the shallows around Elounda, the Venetians established salt pans in the 15th century and later fortified the island of Spinalonga. The fortress remained in Venetian hands after much of Crete fell to the Ottomans, until it was surrendered in 1715.