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| IRAKLION AREA |
View The Map of Iraklion Area
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| AGIA PELAGIA
It is a modern tourist settlement that lies in a picturesque leeward bay protected from the northeastern winds. A long beach with fine yellow sand that in some spots becomes white and thick, is mixed with small white pebbles that embraces the area. This bay of Agia Pelagia together with smaller bay of Ligaria, in a distance of 1 km, form a picturesque cluster....(more here) AGIA VARVARA It is said to be the centre of Crete.The sure thing is that it has a magnificent view and that it is a transport junction. Saint Barbara’s church was built in the 13th century and of course it has historical meaning.The village lies 30 km far from Iraklio. AGIOI DEKA Agioi Deka it is built on a verdant hill with a marvelous view, among the olive plantations, at the north side of the valley of Messara, on the ruins of ancient Gortyna. It is estimated that the cemetery of Gortyna was here. Many of the houses of the village have been built by a structural material taken from the ruins of the ancient city. The Small Museum of Gortyna is situated here with the findings of the area. The village took its name from the ten Cretan Christians who martyred here, during the pogroms by the emperor Dekius in 250 AD. There is a Byzantine church where the stone before which they kneeled before the decapitation is kept in a showcase. AMNISOS Amnisos was the seaport of Knossos and the shipyard of Minos was here, located at the estuary of Karteros, the ruins on ancient Amnisos, is surround a small hill called Paliohora. The ruins on the hill are of a Venetian village from the 16th called Mesovouni....(more here) ANO VIANNOS Ano Viannos is situated amphitheatrically on the side formed by the foot of Dicty, on a height of 560 km, with a marvelous view of the olive plantation of Vianno Province. It is built on the ruins of ancient Vianno, which an independent and autonomic town, minted its own coins that depicted the head of a woman on one side and a flower on the other.(more here) ARHANES The town of Arhanes, is built on the side of a short hill, with abundant waters, among fruitful vineyards. The best kind of table grapes grows here ("rozakia") in Crete that the renowned wine of Arhanes brews here. Narrow picturesque streets and Neo-classical houses, snowed under the flowers, form the image of Arhanes. (more here) PFAESTOS The second major Minoan Palace in Crete after Knossos, controlled, like Knossos a fertile plain that of Messara. Like Knossos it was the center of religious and economic activities The palace has been excavated by Italian Archaeologists.(more here) GORTYS Lying in the fertile plateau of Messara, the town of Gortys was inhabited from the Neolithic era, but it was only after the fall of Knossos that it became the most prominent city of Crete and the Province's capital during the Roman era, that also comprised Cyrenaica ( todays Libya) on the north African coast. Sea ports to Gortys were Matala and Levin (Lentas of today). (more here) IRAKLION Also spelled HERAKLEION (pop. (1981) 102,398), historically CANDIA, largest city and principal port of Crete, and capital of the prefecture of Iraklion. The city lies on the north coast just northwest of the ancient Minoan capital of Knossos. Its name derives from the ancient Roman port of Heracleum, which likely occupied the same site. As the capital of Saracen Crete in the 9th century AD, it took the Arabic name Khandaq ("Moat"), which was corrupted to Candia by the Venetians, to whom the island was sold in 1204. Most of the extensive system of walls built around the city by the Venetians survives....(more here) KNOSSOS The Minoan Palace of Knossos lies at a distance of 5 km from the town centre of Iraklion along the road to Archanes. The imposing Palace is built on the hill of "Kefala" next to the river "Kairatos", in a site which was admired for its natural advantages, the strong position, good water supplies, access to the sea and proximity to a large fertile forest....(more here) LIMENAS HERSONISSOU Hersonissos is a real mixed bag of a resort, with numerous villages and rural areas lumped together with a substantial and busy town that forms the main resort centre. The main town is basically a modern construct, and although there are no tower blocks, its historic past, as evidenced by a scattering of small ancient ruins, is largely lost from view. Nowadays the focus is a substantial harbour area with numerous bar-eateries on a busy raised waterfront stretching along most of the resort's length; periodically there are steps down to small unimpressive beaches....(more here) MALIA The original old village, with some traditional houses,remains a hundred yards or so inland from the very heavily trafficked main Shopping road. Intense tourism development has taken place from the main road down toward the seafront....(more here) MATALA Matala was the ancient port of Phaestos and Gortys and a former fishing community, which has developed into a modern holiday center. It is located 4 km southwest of the village of Pitsidia and 75 km from Iraklion....(more here) |