One of the rare forests of eastern Crete was first systematically settled and intensively used by man about four thousand years ago. In the older Minoan Palace period (ca. 1900-1650 BCE) many agricultural installations (pens, enclosure walls) and house foundations were built with large blocks and are visible on the surface until today. Beginning in the nineteenth century the forest was used again for small scale agriculture and animal husbandry (sheep, goats). The park offers marked paths through the forest along which many of the -unexcavated so far- Bronze Age ruins can be visited. Historical shepherd installations of the Cretan pre-industrial phase can also be seen – together with all the manifold flora and fauna of a Mediterranean mountain forest.