The Nida Plateau is located at an altitude of 1,400 m and is one of the starting points for mountaineers climbing mount Psiloritis. It is very beautiful, especially in springtime when it is full of wildflowers. There is an asphalt road leading to the plateau and across it. On the way to Nida and on the plateau itself you will see the "mitata", traditional shepherd's dwellings, where cheese and other dairy products are made. They are built of stone and the roof is a dome constructed in the Minoan way, where stones are placed in layers from the centre of a circle until it is closed over. Ideon Andro cave or Spilios tis Voskopoulas (Shepherd girl's cave) is located here, which, according to mythology, is the birthplace of Zeus, protecting him from his father Cronus. The Kourites, his nurses, who danced and hit their weapons on their copper shields to cover the cries of the infant Zeus, and fed him with honey and the milk of the
goat Amalthia, protected him
The cave is at an altitude of 1,450 metres, just a little higher than the plateau, and is composed of a large long chamber at the opening, and two horizontal chambers that open onto the cave's inner sanctum.
The first excavations here were an initiative of losif Chatzidakis and were carried out by F. Halbherr in 1884 initially and then by Xanthoudidis and S. Marinatos. The distinguished archaeologist G. Sakellarakis initiated the latest period of excavations in the cave in 1982. The history of the cave begins in the latter Neolithic period, from which time the earliest signs of habitation date, and continues without interruption as a place ofworship in Minoan and Greco-Roman times. The worship of the young Cretan god of fertility, which succeeded the worship of Kritagenis (Cretan-born) Zeus at the end of the Minoan period, began here. The cave stopped being used in the 5th century AD, and as was expected, many important objects (currently housed in the Heraklion Museum) were found in the black earth, burnt from centuries of rituals. The most important findings are the copper ritual shields, perhaps similar to those used by the Kourites, and the signets, clay figurines and
gold coins. The importance and sanctity of this cave in antiquity was such, that many archaeologists rightfully consider it the most important ritual cave in Crete and even in the broader region