Hiking the 16km-long Samaria Gorge, one of Europe’s longest canyons, is high on the list of must-dos for many Crete visitors. There’s an undeniable raw beauty to the canyon with its soaring cliffs and needle-nose passageways. The National Park was declared a nature reserve in 1962 and in 1980 it was proclaimed to be one of the greatest areas of nature, full of wild species, rich in flora & fauna. There are almost 450 plant species in the gorge, and not a single flower can be removed from Samaria, by law. This is significant goal in order to protect the delicate ecosystem of Samaria so that thousands of visitors can continue to enjoy it each year. Samaria is home to the kri-kri, a rarely seen endangered wild goat. The gorge was made a national park in 1962 to save the kri-kri from extinction.