Listed 9 sub titles with search on: Information about the place for wider area of: "AGIA ROUMELI Village SFAKIA" .
AGIA ROUMELI (Village) SFAKIA
Agia Roumeli is the small coastal village that you reach after walking
through the Samaria Gorge. A frequent boat service takes you directly to Loutro
and Hora Sfakion. Agia Roumeli has various hotels, rooms, and tavernas. In May
1941, the Greek government of Emmanuel Tsouderos and King George left Greece from
here when Crete fell to the Nazis. Agia Roumeli was destroyed by the Turks in
1867 after the battle of Aradena. However, the Turkish did not manage to penetrate
the defence of the canyon where all the women and children were protected. The
same had happened in 1866. The ancient Greek site of Tara, is on the left (east)
hill as you exit the gorge. Many of the finds from Tara are in the Archaeological
Museum of Chania. Tara flourished in Greek, Roman and Byzantine times. It was
an independent city and it had a glass producing factory. In Agia Roumeli are
the Byzantine churches of the Panagia, Agia Triada, and Agios Pavlos, a Turkish
castle, and a beautiful beach.
This text is cited Nov 2002 from the Crete TOURnet URL below, which contains image.
AGIA ROUMELI (Village) SFAKIA
PIKILASSOS (Ancient city) SFAKIA
Poecilasium, Poecilassus (Poikilasion, Ptol. iii. 15. § 3; Poikilassos,
Stadiasm. Magni Mar. p. 299, ed. Hoffmann), a town on the S. coast of Crete, placed
by Ptolemy E. of Tarrha, between this place and the promontory Hermaea; but in
the Stadiasmus W. of Tarrha, between this place and Syia, 60 stadia from the former
and 50 from the latter. It is probably represented by the ruins near Trypete,
situated between the places mentioned ill the Stadiasmus. (Pashley, Crete, vol.
ii. p. 264.)
TARRA (Ancient city) SFAKIA
Tarrhos. A town on the SW. coast of Crete between Phoenice and Poecilassus,
one of the earliest sites of the Apollo-worship, and the native country of the
writer Lucillus. For Tarba (Tarba, Ptol. iii. 17. § 3) Meursius proposes to read
Tarrha There can be little or no doubt that its position should be fixed on the
SW. coast of the island, at the very entrance of the glen of Haghia Rumeli, where
the bold hanging mountains hem in the rocky bed of the river. (Pashley, Travels,
vol. ii. p. 270). The Florentine traveller Buondelmonti, who visited Crete A.D.
1415, describes considerable remains of a temple and other buildings as existing
on the site of the ancient city. (ap. Cornelius, Creta Sacra, vol. i. p. 85).
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
PIKILASSOS (Ancient city) SFAKIA
Poikilasion. Small city in the Sphakia district on the S coast of W Crete, E of
Syia and W of Tarrha. On a small bay cut off from the interior by the White Mountains,
it is barely accessible except by sea and has little agricultural land. Little
is known of its history; in the 3d c. B.C. it was a member of the league of Oreioi,
and its gods are mentioned in the league's treaty with Magas of Kyrene (see Lisos).
It is mentioned only by Ptolemy (3.15.3: site wrongly placed E of Tarrha) and
a coastal pilot (Stadiasmus 330: Poikilassos, a city with an anchorage and water).
No coins can definitely be ascribed to it, and it may never have been an independent
city. A Temple of Serapis was consecrated or reconsecrated in the 3d c. A.D.
A few remains of houses survive on ancient terraces on the inland
side of the valley at the mouth of the Tripiti gorge, about 1.6 km from the sea;
there is now no safe anchorage, but if the relative sea level was some 6 m higher
in antiquity there would have been at least a sheltered creek at the river mouth.
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.
TARRA (Ancient city) SFAKIA
Tarrha. City in the Sphakia district on the S coast of W Crete, near modern
Ag. Roumeli, at the mouth of the Samaria Gorge. It is first mentioned by Theophrastos
(Hist.Pl. 2.2.2). In the early 3d c. B.C. it had a coinage alliance with neighboring
Lisos, Elyros, and Hyrtakina, and may have been a member of the league of Oreioi;
it was certainly in the Cretan League in the early 2d c. It was best known as
the legendary home of the seer Karmanor (Plaus. 2.7.7; 2.30.3; 10.7.2; 10.16.5)
and for its oracle and Sanctuary of Apollo Tarrhaios (Steph. Byz. s.v. Tarrha).
It is mentioned by Ptolemy (3.15.3: wrongly listed W of Poikilasion) and the Stadiasmus
(329-30: a small city with an anchorage).
Ancient remains attest occupation from the 5th c. B.C. to the 4th
or 5th c. A.D. Tarrha was then apparently abandoned, probably because of pirate
raids and consequent decline in communications by sea. The remains were described
in the 15th c. and identified in the 19th, though epigraphic confirmation is not
available. Remains W of the river bed include architectural members from a temple
(probably that of Apollo Tarnhaios) reused in a later building over whose ruins
now stands the chapel of the Panagia; below the building is a 1st c. B.C. mosaic,
perhaps connected with the sanctuary. Farther W lay a cemetery. To the E of the
riven are remains of Roman fortification walls and buildings, a few still standing
to some height on the hill below the cliffs in back of the site. Excavation of
some of these buildings revealed Greek walls at a considerable depth below them,
and some tombs of the 5th-4th c. B.C. and of the Roman period.
The factory indicated by abundant glass fragments has not been found,
but it remains likely that one existed here or nearby. The coast appears to have
been lifted some 3.6 m since ancient times, so that the bay is now open and exposed,
but the harbor may once have been better. Minoan occupation of the site is possible,
if only for export of cypresses from the White Mountains; no certain Minoan finds
are known, but some LM III vases may come from here rather than from near Sphakia.
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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