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from Blue Guide: Greece, (4th ed., 1981) p. 739 (Route 81: from Herakleion to Rethymno and Khania):

34 1/4 m. Perama. Turning (l.) for Panormos (4 1/4 m.) Off this road, at Melidhoni is a celebrated stalactite cave where 370 Christians were smoked to death by the Turks in 1824.--35 1/2 m. Turning (l.) for Margarites (3 m.), a delightful potting village where all stages of the manufacture of clay vessels can be studied, and Prines (4 1/2 m.). After Margarites the road is unpaved and rough.

From Prines ancient Eleutherna can be reached in ten minutes' walk by a path from the centre of the village. The acropolis stands at the end of a sharp, precipitous ridge, and is reached by a narrow rock causeway, guarded by a Byzantine tower. The acropolis fell to the Roman conqueror, Metellus Creticus (67 B.C.), only after a strong tower had been drenched with vinegar (Dio Cassius, XXXVI, 18, 2). Around the sides of the ridge are the remains of the classical walls. In the w. side are vast Roman cisterns, while on the E. side a connecting conduit can be explored (torch advised). The cistern and the conduit are not easy to find, and it is worth arranging for a guide in the village. From the site came an important Archaic statue (Herakleion Museum). Below the Acropolis to the N.W. (c. 15 min. walk) in the stream valley a remarkably fine and possibly Classical bridge can be seen, still in use. The road, still poor, continues through modern Eleutherna to join the main road at Viran Episkopi (9 1/2 m. from Prines).