These two islets, in all some 3 km long, lie some 7.5 nautical miles off the south coastline of the Rethymnon Prefecture and are visible from all along its length. Their name comes from their shape – this resembles an old Cretan product, the paximadi (a double-baked rusk of bread).
They belonged to Festos, and were called the Dionyssi. Another name for them is Letoai, for it is said that the goddess Leto gave birth on them to Apollo and Artemis.
There is but a single isolated beach on the easternmost islet, with pebbles, rocks and deep clear water of dark blue.
Very close to Aghia Galini is an extremely quiet beach, that of Aghios Georgios.
