Plakoura in the Cretan dialect stands for “stone slab”. As a toponym, it refers to the relief of an area and, apart from Karkadiotissa village in Heraklion, it can be found in other parts of Crete as well.

Although stone slabs are generally difficult to remove from the ground, past inhabitants had found a way to cut them and used them to make round millstones for pressing olives. Usually the area around stone slabs is very wild, yet in the case of Karkadiotissa Cretans have managed to cultivate it with the vines and olives that we see until today.