Aptera
Aptera ( Greek Ἄπτερα , also Ἄπταρα, Áptara, also Apteria, Apterea or Aptaria) is an archaeological site in western Crete above the Bay of Souda . It was one of the most important city-states in Crete.
location
The extensive field of ruins of Aptera is located on a plateau at a height of 150 m near the village of Megala Chorafia south of Souda Bay in western Crete, 13 km east of Chania . A little to the west is the small village of Aptera today . At the foot of the hill, National Road 90 runs along the coast. In the immediate vicinity there are some olive groves , between which ruins can still be seen. The rest of the area is only sparsely overgrown. Around the plateau, parts of the old fortress wall can still be seen, especially in the west and east.
history
The plateau was continuously populated from the Bronze Age until the Christian era. The name Aptera can already be found on tablets (in linear font B ) from Knossos from the 14th to 13th centuries BC. From the history of the old city, which was founded in the 17th century BC and on the site of today's Paleokastro Megala Chorafia is little known, although it had great importance since the Minoan period due to its strategic location, which only waned in the Hellenistic age. Aptera was a flourishing shipping and trading town and had its port in Kissamo (near Kalives ). Aptera sent archers to help the Spartans in the 2nd Messenian War (around 640 BC) and was allied with Knossos during the civil war of the Cretan cities in 220 BC. Later Aptera allied itself with 30 other Cretan cities with Eumenes II , the king of Pergamon . It was destroyed by an earthquake in the 7th century BC, but flourished again in Roman times. During the Saracen invasion in 824 AD, the city was destroyed and sacked.
The ruined district
The ruins include remains from several millennia of Cretan history:
- The remains of a temple of Eileithyia , a fertility goddess. In 1958 the remains of a Doric temple were discovered.
- from the 3rd century BC the fortress wall built in the east from large polygonal stones and in the west from long rectangular stones
- There are also remains of a temple of Apollo and a temple of Demeter from the early first century BC,
- a large three-aisled Roman cistern , a Roman theater from which the orchestra and the remains of the seats have been preserved, and Roman baths.
- Houses from the early Byzantine period.
- The monastery of Agios Ioannis Theologos. , was built in the 12th century. It was in operation until 1964; several parts such as a chapel and a two-story cell building are well preserved.
- On the eastern edge there is a Turkish fort, the Koule Fortress, built in 1867 . It has a well-preserved crenellated crown from which an impressive panorama is offered: In the background lies the Akrotiri peninsula with white cliff edges¸ on the other side of the bay is the airport of Chania and the NAMFI , a launching base for NATO missiles and at the foot of the Berges the still used military fort Izzedin , built in 1872 by Reuf Pasha.
literature
- Gustav Hirschfeld : Aptera 1 . In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume II, 1, Stuttgart 1895, Col. 286 f.
Web links
Coordinates: 35 ° 27 ′ 46.5 ″ N , 24 ° 8 ′ 31.4 ″ E