This village which is now deserted belongs to the Itanos Municipality. Ιn 1583 Castrofylaca listed it as Scaglia with 162 inhabitants. The origin of the name may be
connected with its geographical position οn the slopes of a hill; skalia: steps.
After the Turkish seizure of Crete the people of Skalia refused to submit to the Ottoman yoke. Ιn order to subdue them Turkish troops had been sent ashore at Xerokambos (Ambelos) and had set υp camp at Mavros Kambos. (There may have been a settlement here as Castrofylaca mentions, a village called Makri Livadhi, which is also mentioned by Basilicata ίπ 1629 but by the name Mavrilidi.
Ρ. Faure ίπ his «Villes et Villages de la Crete Oriental» (Kritologia Ι 1975 p.30) says he believes this to be Mavros Kambos of Zakros). The Turks planned to attack the Skaliots at night but their guide, a Christian, had managed to warn the Skaliots who made a lightning attack and wiped out the Ottoman troops. The Skaliots however, were betrayed, and indeed by their own parish priest Papa Drakos (or Papa Frangias) from Ziros. He called the Christians together ίn the church of Agia Paraskevi at Ziros, ostensibly to offer them absolution and communion after the slaughter of the Turks; he allowed nο arms inside the church and so the men had to lay down their arms ίπ the forecourt. The Turks, who had been summoned by the traitor priest, then surrounded the church and massacred the Skaliots.
The priest's horrible betrayal shocked even the Turks themselves, and since no one loves a traitor they burnt him ίn a lighted oven. Many people from the surrounding villages of Hametoulo, Kalo Horio, Αchladia. Tso or Agia Triada, Apidia and Ziros had also been ίn the church. The bones of the dead are in an ossuary in the church of Agia Paraskevi at Ziros. There is no definite date for this event, and although it may have taken place at the beginning of the 19th century, it could have happened much earlier.
