The History of the Labyrinth Cave

While browsing old maps of Crete in the Bodleian library, Nick Howarth was surprised to see a place marked 'Labyrinth' in the mountains near Messara. Frustrated by a lack of information on the site in tourist guides, he tracked down Thomas Waldmann, a cave enthusiast who had become an expert on this 'labyrinth', visiting it on more than 40 occasions over the course of more than a decade.

    
This map of the labyrinth, made in 1817, is one of the earliest; The modern entrance to the cave
is a narrow tunnel, calling to mind the labyrinth of Minos; 1688 map showing the 'labyrinth'

Nick discovered that the site, which many locals still insisted was the labyrinth of the Minotaur, had once been an important landmark, and an essential stop on a young gentleman's 'grand tour' of Europe. In the early 20th century, however, the limelight shifted to Arthur Evans' excavations of Knossos. Knossos, many excitedly claimed, had been the real site of Minos' labyrinth. Before long the Messaran labyrinth was forgotten.

Visitors to the labyrinth have inscribed their name in the 'trapeza room' since 1444.
Amongst the inscriptions are the names of several notable people, such as Mathieu Dumas
who mapped the labyrinth while on a secret mission for France.

During the second World War, the Germans used the labyrinth as an ammunition store, clearing and stabilising some parts of the structure and building a new entrance. When they left Crete, the entrance was blown up and filled with rubble to deter the Allied Forces from using the site, causing parts of the cave to fall in.

Ammunition, some of it live, is strewn around the part of the labyrinth near the entrance

In the fourties and fifties some of the ammunition was cleared by the Greek army and government, but this work was never completed due to concerns over the instability of the cave. Despite the risk of collapse or explosion, the site continued to attract curious locals. On the 11th of April 1961, four adventurous young Cretans were killed by an explosion in the cave. Only two bodies were recovered. The entrance to the labyrinth was sealed by the army, and the cave became inaccessible for twenty years.

In the eighties, the cave was reopened by several groups of Greek cavers, who built new entrances and made modern maps of the cave. In 1997 Thomas Waldmann, a Swiss who had been travelling in Crete for eighteen years, heard tell of the 'labyrinth' from a friend who had been looking for classic motorbikes there. Waldmann was fascinated by his description of this secret maze, and soon began continuing the work of mapping and documenting the cave, visiting every nook and cranny and even discovering previously unknown parts of the cave.

String is left by explorers of the cave to mark the way,
a deliberate echo of the clew given to Theseus by Ariadne

Distinguishing Characteristics of the Labyrinth Cave

The labyrinth is made up of 2.5 km of corridors and chambers, the navigable part of the cave covering nearly 9000 square metres. It is located at 413 metres above sea level in the white mountains, just north of the Messara plain in the south of Crete.

The 'labyrinth' is surrounded by the villages of Kastelli, Ambelouzos, Plouti, Moroni and Roufas

In most of the cave's passages, it is possible to stand upright, although occasionally it becomes necessary to bend or crawl. The walls are mostly limestone, although there is some limemarl and sandstone. The ceiling follows the natural layers of the stone, giving it a characteristically man-made appearance.

  
Some parts of the labyrinth are too narrow to stand in; The natural plates of the rock make it susceptible to collapse

In fact, most of the labyrinth is artificial - only a few corridors seem to be part of a natural cave. It seems likely that whoever made the built parts of the labyrinth was guided by the natural cave, but what their purpose was is something of a mystery.

  
The final 'trapeza' room, named after the ancient Greek word for 'table'; The 'trapeza' from which this room got its name.

Why was the Labyrinth Cave built?

Many believe that the labyrinth was used as a quarry, probably to supply limestone to the nearby Roman town of Gortyn. Various features of the cave speak in favour of this theory: partially worked stones can be found in many parts, and neat tool marks are everywhere on the walls. Parallel grooves on the ground of the passages may have been made by vehicles transporting limestone out of the quarry. In several places furrows are found at a low point on corners of the walls, probably made by ropes dragging the limetone-bearing vehicles. It may be possible to test this theory by matching up limestone samples from the cave to Roman buildings in Gortyn, although so far nobody has had the resources to do this.

    
Partially worked bricks; Vehicle tracks; Possible rope marks

If the labyrinth was a Roman quarry, it is not unlikely that it was built on the site of a Minoan cave sanctuary. These sanctuaries are found in innumerable caves all over Crete, and many contained impressive ritual objects showing that they were important religious sites. Without a dangerous and expensive excavation this is mere speculation, but if true there is a possibility that the site may have had some part in the origin of the labyrinth myth. However, the most strikingly labyrinthine parts of the cave are the man-made parts, so perhaps it is more likely that the site's association with the labyrinth began in the Middle Ages, when the quarry's original function had been forgotten.

Some rooms and walls have been completely filled up with stones, but why?

Unsolved Mysteries

During our visit to the labyrinth, we found evidence of cave looters: tools, excavations, and even dynamite holes in the wall. The looters appear to have been trying to blast through to a hidden chamber of the labyrinth. Needless to say, this exposed the cave to great danger of collapse. The story attracted attention throughout Greece, and our expedition was even featured on the front page of a widely read Greek newspaper, Ta Nea (see media coverage).

Soon after we left, the entrance to the labyrinth was closed again. The question of what the looters were doing in the cave remains, for the time being, another mystery.

(Many thanks to Thomas Waldmann for allowing us to use information and photographs from his website, www.labyrinthos.ch)