Postal code 700 09 Area code 28920 | Time zone EET (UTC+2) Local time Saturday 8:22 AM | |
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Kaloi Limenes or Kali Limenes (Greek: Καλοί Λιμένες [kaliˈ liménes]) is a village and port in the Heraklion regional unit, southern Crete, in Greece, located 82 kilometres (51 mi) south-west of the city of Heraklion. It has 21 inhabitants (2011). It is known as a major bunkering spot for ships in the southern Mediterranean.
Contents
Map of Kaloi Limenes, Greece
History
Kaloi Limenes (meaning "Good Harbors", "Fair Havens") is a natural port near the southernmost point of Crete. It is close to the village of Lentas (ancient Levin), and the unexcavated remains of Lassea, a port for the ancient settlement of Gortys.
Local legend as well as biblical scholars assert that Apostle Paul, in whose name a small church was built there (first in Byzantine times, then restored in the 1960s), landed at Kaloi Limenes to preach the Christian faith in Crete. Other scholars claim that the commercial ship carrying Paul from Caesaria to Rome, as a prisoner of the Romans, turned to the south of Crete to better sail under north-western winds and eventually had to take temporary refuge "at Fair Havens ... for a change in the wind."
However, other historians and researchers relate that Paul possibly landed further west, at Loutro, of the Sphakia region, where there is a chapel on the shore on which Paul is said to have baptized the first Cretan converts, or at Phoinikas ("Phoenix"), a small village in the bay west of Loutro.
Bunkering
The port is the home of a major oil storage and terminal facility, located on the small island of Aghios Pavlos ("Saint Paul") at the port's entrance. The facility has four shore-based storage tanks containing fuel oil and gasoil, pumps of 1,000 cubic metres per hour capacity and three loading docks. The terminal's maximum draft of 40 feet (13.45 metres) enables the facility to handle oil tankers of up to approximately two hundred thousand metric tons of deadweight.
Exact Location
34.927601°N 24.805884°E / 34.927601; 24.805884