Amari is one of the most representative areas of Rethymnon, which will require a full day of your holiday, if you want to get to know it and discover its beauties. The region of Amari, inside the valley sport ween Kedros and Psiloritis mountains, consists of forty small picturesque villages, in a verdant landscape of fruit and olive trees, many springs spouting crystal water all year round and offers summer visitors an unexpected sense of coolness. In the Byzantine period, the city of Syvritos flourished in the area, and its remains can be seen at the present-day sites of Thronos and Klissidia villages. Syvritos was an important city in the early Byzantine period, and even had an episcopate. It
was probably destroyed by the Saracens, and the episcopate moved to a different location.
There are various etymological interpretations of the place-name Amari.
According to one version, the name comes from the archaic word "amara" meaning day, and is related to Amarios Zeus, who was worshiped in archaic colonies such as this one. In a second version, the name is attributed to the homeric word"amari" meaning channel, aqueduct, on the assumption that there was an irrigation system in the valley.
Others suggest that the name may come from the Italian word "amaro", which means bitter. Finally, the most plausible explanation is that some Venetian dignitary named the area after himself.