Making a Landscape Sacred

This book examines the landscape in southwestern Crete from AD 1000-2000, using a phenomenological approach. Specifically, the positioning of outlying churches (exokklisia) and icon stands (eikonostasia) around Sphakia is looked at, in terms of spatial and social reasoning. What is certainly clear, is that people choose the location of sacred buildings particularly carefully, so the locations themselves cannot be seen as random. Routes, resources and boundaries are all factors but primarily these locations are symbolic: such monuments mark, protect and preserve the memory of significant locations in the landscape.