| Kaloi Limenes Καλοί Λιμένες |
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Kaloi Limenes
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| Coordinates | |
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| Country: | Greece |
| Region: | Crete |
| Regional unit: | Heraklion |
| Municipality: | Faistos |
| Municipal unit: | Moires |
| Population statistics (as of 2001) | |
| Village | |
| - Population: | 47 |
| Other | |
| Time zone: | EET/EEST (UTC+2/3) |
| Postal: | 700 09 |
| Telephone: | 28920 |
Kaloi Limenes or Kali Limenes (Greek: Καλοί Λιμένες, IPA: kɑːlí lim/é/n/e/s) 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 approximately 50 inhabitants.[1] It is known as a major bunkering spot for ships in the southern Mediterranean.[2]
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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.[1]
Local legend [3] as well as biblical scholars [4] assert that Apostle Paul, in whose name a small church was built there (first in Byzantine times,[5] 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,[6] 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."[7]
However, other historians and researchers[8] 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.[9]
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.[10] The terminal's maximum draft of 40 feet (13.45 metres)[10] enables the facility to handle oil tankers of up to approximately two hundred thousand metric tons of deadweight.[2]