Listed 2 sub titles with search on: Archaeological sites for destination: "MYRTOS Village IERAPETRA".
Another Minoan site was located in a place called Mirtos Pirgos. It
was active in the Early Minoan era, and, like the one in Fournou Korfi, it was
destroyed at the same time, but was rebuilt and used in later Minoan times. During
the New Palace Period the settlement had a large villa on the summit of the hill.
A cistern dating from the Old Palace Period is considered to be the deepest Minoan
cistern found in Crete.
The site at the top of a hill on the north side of the main road is signposted
before the entrance to Mirtos. There is a dirt road here that continues to the
Venetian bridge of the old road to Ierapetra. The path that starts at the base
of the hill close to the highway is difficult to see because of recent floods,
but as you go up it is clearly marked with white stones. The ascent takes about
15 minutes and is well-worth the effort. The Minoan villa at the crest had an
incredible view of the Libyan Sea and the surrounding area. A stepped street from
the town on the eastern hillside led to a paved courtyard in front of the house.
The cistern in the courtyard is from an earlier period and it was filled with
stones when the villa was built. The characteristic Minoan raised walk bordered
the front of the veranda. The border of the walk was made of purple limestone,
as were the bases of the wooden columns. The entrance to the villa from the veranda
was at the west end and led into a passage that continued north first to a staircase
(now covered for protection) and then a lightwell with a purple limestone floor.
A bench (also covered for protection) was opposite the lightwell. Remains found
in an east wing suggest a large and grand upstairs room. On the north side of
the hill below the villa are the remains of the deepest Minoan cistern found in
Crete. It appears that its outer wall gave way and it was not repaired, forcing
water to be hauled up from below. The intriguing finds from the area of Mirtos
are exhibited in the Museum of Agios Nikolaos and Iraklion.
This text is cited Feb 2003 from the Crete TOURnet URL below, which contains images.
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