This owes its name (Tall Sand) to the lofty sand-dunes which surround it.
It is a quiet and sheltered spot, not developed: sandy and with crystal-clear waters. The locals use it to avoid the crowds elsewhere, but it is well enough known now to all and sundry. At the east end nudism is tolerated.
Access is easy. Follow the road .. until you arrive just above the beach – then take the short footpath to the dunes and then over them to the beach itself. The sand in the middle of a summer’s day becomes HOT: wear closed shoes when negotiating the dunes!
According to legend, the sands here hide the unburied bodies of 338 rebellious Cretans. Beseiged in Frankokastello under their Epirot leader Hatzimichali Daliani, they were slain in battle against the Turks at the end of May 1828. Their spirits are the legendary Drosoulites (the Dew Men), the famed apparitions of Frankokastello. They are so called because – according to legend – they appear with the morning dew, just before sunrise, in the last days of May and the first of June .. and then disappear towards the sea.
Continuing west, a kilometer past Orthi Ammos, is the settlement of Frankokastello, with its renown beach.
