Listed 14 sub titles with search on: Information about the place for wider area of: "SOUDA Small town CHANIA" .
APTERA (Ancient city) SOUDA
Aptera has Greek, Roman and Byzantine remains, as well as a Turkish
fort. On the top you will see a track to the right towards the Byzantine and Roman
remains. Looking south across the valley of Stylos, you will enjoy the view of
the Lefka Ori. The view is quite breathtaking from here in the spring when the
White Mountains are covered with snow.
Aptera was a powerful city of Crete. Legend says that Aptera (meaning
wingless) acquired its name after the defeat of the Sirens in a music contest.
The Muses clipped the wings of the Sirens and when the Sirens tried to fly, they
fell into the water and formed the small islands in Souda Bay.
Aptera has been in existence since Minoan times, and its name appears
in the tablets of Knossos. It became a very important city-state of Crete during
Greek times and was involved in the Cretan wars. It had two harbours. The first
one, Minoa, was at the north entrance to Souda Bay, where Marathi beach is today.
The second was on the other side of the bay where Kalami or Kalives is located.
These harbours dominated the entrance to the protected bay of Souda. Aptera continued
to be an important city during the Roman and first Byzantine periods but it was
destroyed by the Arabs in 823 A.D. The Venetians built a fort there which was
destroyed by the pirate Barbarosa.
The city prospered until its destruction by the Arabs and later it
was abandoned. It was reoccupied by the Byzantines and, in several places, impressive
city walls are still visible, which were 4km long at one time. In the middle of
the site there is a small temple dating from classical times, (second century
B.C.). It is assumed that the temple was dedicated to a pair of gods, possibly
Dimitra and Kori.
SOUDA (Small town) CHANIA
Souda itself (6km from Chania) is a typical port area but the bay
and the landscape around it are very beautiful. In the nearby area is also the
Allied World War II cemetery. Souda Bay is one of the most strategically important
NATO anchorages in the Mediterranean.
This text is cited Oct 2002 from the Crete TOURnet URL below, which contains image.
SOUDA (Bay) CHANIA
Souda Bay is one of the most strategically important NATO anchorages
in the Mediterranean. The inlet is 15km long and in some areas, 16km wide, making
it the largest harbour in the Mediterranean. It is also one of the most protected
from all winds--deceivingly so, because very often it is not known how bad the
weather is outside the harbour. During World War II, heavy German aerial bombardment
sank many British ships here.
This text is cited Oct 2002 from the Crete TOURnet URL below, which contains images.
TSIKALARIA (Village) SOUDA
The village of Tsikalaria is southeast of Chania, near Souda. The
village contains the Byzantine church of the Panagia.
APTERA (Ancient city) SOUDA
Apteria, Apteron, Eth. Apteraios (Palaeokastron). A city of Crete
situated to the E. of Polyrrhenia, and 80 stadia from Cydonia (Strab. x. p. 479).
Here was placed the scene of the legend of the contest between the Sirens and
the Muses, when after the victory of the latter, the Sirens lost the feathers
of their wings from their shoulders, and having thus become white cast themselves
into the sea, - whence the name of the city Aptera, and of the neighbouring islands
Leucae. (Steph. B. s. v.) It was at one time in alliance with Cnossus, but was
afterwards compelled by the Polyrrhenians to side with them against that city.
(Pol. iv. 55.) The port of Aptera according to Strabo was Cisamos. Mr. Pashley
(Travels, vol. i. p. 48) supposes that the ruins of Palaeokastron belong to Aptera,
and that its port is to be found at or near Kalyves. Diodorus (v. 64) places Berecynthos
in the district of the Apteraeans. (The old reading was emended by Meursius, Creta,
p. 84.) This mountain has been identified with the modern Malaxa, which from its
granitic and schistose basis complies with the requisite geological conditions
for the existence of metallic veins; if we are to believe that bronze and iron
were here first discovered, and bestowed on man by the Idaean Dactyls.
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited June 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
A city of Crete about eighty stadia from Cydonia. Its name was said to be derived from the result of a contest in music held at this place between the Sirens and the Muses, when the former, being defeated, were so affected that their wings dropped from their shoulders
This text is cited Oct 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
APTERA (Ancient city) SOUDA
On a steep-sided plateau (231 m) just inland from Kalami on the S
side of entrance to Suda Bay. Various attempts were made in antiquity to explain
the name: e.g., that this was the site of the song contest of the Muses and Sirens;
the latter lost their wings when defeated (Steph. Byz. s.v. Aptera; ‘aptera’ =
‘wingless’); another legend has an eponymous hero Apteros. The city's name may
in fact derive from the epithet of Artemis there (see below). The foundation of
the city is variously ascribed to Glaukos of Cyrene or Pteras of Delphi.
There are few literary references to the city's history: archers from
A. fought for Sparta in the second Messenian war (late 7th c.; Paus. 4.20.8);
in 220 B.C. the city was forced by Polyrrhenia to desert its alliance with Knossos
(Polyb. 4.55.4). A little can be gleaned from inscriptions: A. probably supported
Sparta against Pyrrhos (272) and in the Chremonidean war (267/6-1); at this time
it had links with Ptolemaic Egypt but was strangely absent from the alliances
with Miletos (mid 3d c.); Scipios and their staff were honored there (189) as
well as pro-Roman Achaeans (early 2d c.), Attalus I or II, and Prusias II. The
city joined the treaty with Eumenes (183).
Impressive city walls indicate prosperity in the Early Hellenistic
period, and wide commercial and political contacts are attested by a series of
proxeny decrees (mainly 2d c.); the city's position at the mouth of the safest
anchorage in Crete was of benefit. However, Aptera seems to have declined before
the Roman Conquest, perhaps becoming dependent on its powerful neighbor Kydonia.
Archaeological evidence of continued settlement through the Early Byzantine period
is confirmed by a mention in Hierokles (650.11) and references to bishops of Aptera
(Notitiae 8.227; 9.136). Geographical sources refer to it, usually as an inland
city, without much detail: [Scylax] 47; Strab. 10.4.13, p. 479; Dion. Call. 122f.;
Plin. HN 4.12.59 (Minoium Apteron are two separate sites); Ptol. Geogr. 3.5.7;
Stad. 344 (confusion with Minoa?); Rav. Cosm. V.21; Steph. Byz. s.v. The form
Aptara was apparently the usual one in Crete, and Aptera outside: coins have Aptara,
inscriptions both, literary texts mostly Aptera. Coins portray a number of deities,
especially Artemis Aptera, who seems to have been the chief deity (related to
Diktynna and associated with initiation rites: see Willetts). Coins also commonly
depict an armed man, Ptolioikos (the hero Apteros?), a bee, a torch, and a bow.
Coinage started ca. 330 and ceased well before the Roman Conquest; there was none
under Roman rule.
Pashley first correctly identified the site, previously thought to
be Minoa or Amphimalla. Considerable remains survive, though nowhere to full height,
of the city walls which are 4 km long, probably of 3d c. date, and all of one
period despite differences in style. They surround the entire plateau, some of
which was probably not built on even at times of maximum population. The work
is particularly solid (2.4-2.8 m thick) on the W side, the normal approach at
least from the Hellenistic period and the easiest route of access. The main gate
is set at an oblique angle and flanked by towers; farther S is another tower shielding
a sally port. Only traces survive of the wall line along the S and central N side,
and on the NW side the work is rougher (with a steep drop outside). On the E side
the terrain is rougher and the plateau edge irregular; the wall course is correspondingly
irregular. The E gate (now Sideroporta) lay where the wall crossed a deep gully
running into the site from the NE. Earlier the city may have been more clearly
oriented towards the plain to the E, and there are possible traces of early defenses
farther up the gully and around a low hill near the E side of the city, S of the
gully, which seems to have been the acropolis; only rock cuttings survive on its
top.
Apart from the city walls, the most striking ancient remains are the
two great cisterns in the center of the site on the S side of the main gully (since
these, like the walls, remained in use for centuries, they escaped demolition
in the Early Byzantine period when all other ancient buildings were stripped of
reusable building material; the walls suffered more during Venetian and Turkish
fortification of Suda Bay). Both cisterns were built of concrete faced with brick
and then mortar. One (W of the monastery of St. John of Patmos) has one aisle
and turns at a right angle (6.3 m clear width). The other (NE of the monastery)
has three barrel-vaulted aisles divided by two rows of four longitudinal arched
piers (overall size 24.7 x 18.5 x 8.2 m high); it is of Roman date, at least in
its final form (with barrel vaults). To the SW of the monastery is a small double-cella
temple (cf. Sta. Lenika) of careful, heavily clamped ashlar (5th-4th c.); later,
graves were put inside and a mediaeval building over it. Behind is a terrace wall
(associated with Protogeometric-Geometric sherds?). Nearby to the SE, a wall containing
a number of (mainly proxeny) inscriptions was seen by Pococke and Pashley and
excavated by Wescher (1862-64) but largely demolished in the 1890s; three more
inscriptions were found in 1928. They may be in situ, not reused, and perhaps
associated with the prytaneion. The wall has now entirely disappeared, but nearby
is a 7th-8th c. church. To the E of this is a Roman apsidal building (bouleuterion?),
with W wall, of poor concrete work with three niches, partly surviving. To the
S of this, Early Byzantine houses have been excavated, and others of this period
N of the cisterns.
The small theater lay inside the S city wall; the cavea (diam. 55
m) and orchestra (diam. 18 m) are now a simple hollow covered with stone. Diazoma,
some seats and the paraskenia are still visible, but little of the stage building
(25 x 6 m). Remains of brick walls attest alterations in the Roman period. To
the E of the theater are traces of a small Doric temple (of Dionysos?). Between
the acropolis (?) and E city wall is a small, poorly preserved temple of the Early
Roman period: distyle in antis, with two statue bases in front; it was perhaps
a Temple of Demeter and Kore (excavated 1958). The earlier attribution to it of
bull statues is probably wrong. The existence of a temple under the Turkish Fort
Izzedin at the NE corner of the site is uncertain.
Sherds of all periods from Classical (a few) to Early Byzantine and
later cover the site. The main area of occupation in earlier periods was in the
larger part S of the gully; remains in the N part seem to be mostly Byzantine
or later. Buildings were probably never closely crowded. In the Roman period the
city probably became rather agricultural in character. The site was destroyed
in the Arab conquest and probably not reoccupied until Venetian times.
The necropolis lay on the saddle to the W near Megala Choraphia and
contained rock-cut graves as well as chamber tombs of Late Classical-Roman times
and an earlier pithos burial. Some rock-cut graves found within the city walls
(S side) indicate lack of habitation there. The port was at Kisamos; Aptera is
thought by some to have controlled Minoa across the bay entrance. To the W is
Mt. Malaxa (ancient Berekynthos), where the Idaean Daktyloi lived, legendary inventors
of metallurgy (Diod. 5.64.5).
D. J. Blackman, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Nov 2002 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
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