Dikti mountain range (whose highest point is ). The average temperature in the warmest months of the year (July and August) is around 28° Celsius (82 °F), though sometimes it can exceed 40° Celsius (105 °F). The temperature during the coldest months of the year (January and February) averages about 13° Celsius (55 °F), and on rare occasions it can also snow in Myrtos. The beaches Myrtos has a long beach consisting not just of sand, but also of fine-grained pebbles. The beach has received the "Blue Flag award", which requires the beach to satisfy a number of criteria in order to retain it. The nearby village of Tertsa also has a very long beach. On the two outlying beaches of Tertsa, nudism is tolerated by the authorities. Points of interest Myrtos is also the location for two Minoan archaeological sites, at Fournou Korifi and Pyrgos, which provide evidence that the village and its environs have been inhabited since the neolithic period. There is also a Roman villa, although the ruins are now largely covered or lost due to coastal erosion and local building. In Myrtos there is a small museum, dedicated to the local history, which features a scale model of Fournou Korifi created by John Atkinson, a British potter resident in the village who is the current museum curator. Near the small village Mithi, about 3 miles (5 km) from Myrtos lies the Sarakina Gorge. GPS Coordinates for Myrtos are 35.0036111° N and 25.5844444° E Economy Of particular importance in increasing the prosperity around Myrtos in the middle of the twentieth century was the Netherlander Paul Kuijpers. After his studies in the Netherlands, he moved to Crete in 1966 and introduced greenhouses in the southern part of the island, as a result of which farmers could harvest all year round and were less dependent on the weather. The areas surrounding Myrtos are still dominated by greenhouses often composed only of wooden frames covered with plastic sheeting. In 1971, Kuijpers was killed in a car accident and a memorial bust in Gra Lighia commemorates his importance for the area. References External links Official Website of the Village Archaeological site at Myrtos-Pyrgos Ierapetra Populated places in Lasithi