The “Elliniki Kamara” or “Greek Arch” is located between the villages of Maza and Vrysses. It is a stone single-arch bridge of the Hellenistic period. Modifications were carried out in Venetian times, while the cobbled surface and the parapet were constructed during the Late Ottoman period. It was built on the banks of the River Vrysses/Kamara, because the main road connecting the region of Chania with Rethymno passed through the area.

The site was named “Elliniki Kamara” or “Greek Arch” in the modern period, due to the bridge. The adjective “Ellinikos” is often used as a place-name in locations were there were visible antiquities. The bridge is also known as “Philip’s Bridge” or “Palaiokamara” (“Old Arch”).

A version of a well-known oral folk poem linking the construction of a bridge with the murder of the master builder’s wife survives, referring to the Elliniki Kamara. It is an excellent example of folk poetry.

“Three sisters were we, ill-fated all three.
One was taken by war, the other by a bullet,
And I, unhappy woman, by the foot of the arch.
Oleander, take my rosy cheeks, partridge, take my finery,
And you, corn, take my golden locks,
That no woman may take them and suffer my misfortunes.”