Aptera

Aptera Village Roman Villa Roman Cisterns The Basilica

Leaving Hania by the Souda road to Rethymnon, at the 16th km, where the Kalami prison stands, the road bends to the right and climbs to the village of Megala Chorafia tou Apokorona, one of the most important archaeological and historical sites in western Crete, the ancient city of Aptera (Aptara, according to A. Zois).

Built on an imposing rocky height commanding Souda Bay, it affords the visitor a superb view of the Akrotiri peninsula and all the eparchy.

In the historical period the town was fortified with a wall, which is still visible in many places. Above the fortified acropolis are the ruins of huge vaulted cisterns and other public constructions of the Roman and Early Byzantine periods.

A small two-aisled Hellenistic temple has been excavated and part of the Roman Bouleuterion. The Veneto-Cretan monastery of Ayios loannis Theologos and the Turkish fortress of Itzedin still exist.

The place used to be called Palaiokastro. The name Aptera or Aptara is attributed to its legendary founder, Apteras or Apteros.

Aptera was a wealthy commercial and industrial city, controlled Souda Bay and minted coins depicting Hera or Artemis. In the Early Byzantine period it was the seat of a bishopric. It was finally destroyed in the 8th c. BC.

The Turks built their own fort, Idzeddin, at the south end of the bay, using the ruins of the ancient city Aptera as a convenient quarry.

Aptera was important into the Christian era, although little remains except the story of its name: the Muses defeated the Sirens in a musical contest here, but the Sirens were sore losers, tore out their feathers (hence aptera or 'featherless') and plunged into the sea, where they turned into offshore rocks.

Among the ruins you can pick out Cyclopean walls, two temples, a theatre an impressive underground vaulted cistern built by the Romans.

Further along the coast, Kalyves and Almirida are small budding, low-key resort towns the latter more attractive with a sheltered bay and pleasant beach with good windsurfing.