Skotino Cave

Skotino Cave is one of the largest caves in Crete [1]. The cave lies high on a hill northwest of the village of Skotino, a few kilometers inland south of Gouves [1]. It is also known as Agia Paraskevi Cave from the church dedicated to Saint Paraskevi built on top of it [1]. The cave is 160 meters deep and 36 meters wide [1]. A more comprehensive exploration was carried out by French and Greek archaeologists in the 1960s [1]. They found a considerable number of bronze and ceramic votive offerings, the oldest of them dating from the earliest Minoan periods, suggesting the cave was an important sacred shrine dedicated to a female fertility deity, presumably Britomartis [1]. The cave was still used in Classical Greek and Roman eras, when the fertility goddess Artemis or her Roman equivalent Diana replaced the Minoan deity [1].