Toplou Monastery

Toplou Monastery is a currently active monastery located in a semi-arid area of the Lasithi regional unit, on the eastern part of the island of Crete in Greece. It is about 6 km north of Palekastro and 85 km east of Agios Nikolaos. It is at the base of the Itanos promontory from which Cape Sidero, the easternmost point of Crete, projects to the northeast. The nearest settlements are Sitia to the west and Palaikastro to the southeast; otherwise, the entire promontory is uninhabited except for the modern military reservation at the tip of the cape. In the political structure of Greece, the monastery has been assigned the settlement of Toplou, which it had before 2011, but was validated again in the redivision of 2011. The full civic classification beyond Toplou from 2011 in ascending order is: local community Palaikastro, municipal unit Itanos, municipality Siteia, regional unit Lasithi, region krete.