Listed 9 sub titles with search on: Information about the place for wider area of: "MIRES Municipality HERAKLIO" .
KALI LIMENES (Port) MIRES
The village of Kali Limenes is 77km southwest of Iraklion on the road
Iraklion - Agia Varvara - Festos - Moni Odigitrias - Kali Limenes. The road is
narrow and the drive slow. Although this may seem an effort, the end result is
worth it. Kali Limenes has a lovely beach with relatively unspoilt scenery and
clear water.
This extract is cited Feb 2003 from the Crete TOURnet URL below, which contains image.
MIRES (Small town) HERAKLIO
The village of Mires is 53km south of Iraklion on the road Iraklion
- Agia Varvara - Agii Deka - Mires. It is a busy commercial town in the centre
of the Mesara Plain. There are a number of Byzantine churches in the area near
Mires.
LASSEA (Ancient city) MIRES
Lasaia. A city in Crete, near the roadstead of the Fair Havens. (Acts,
xxvii. 8.) This place is not mentioned by any other writer, but is probably the
same as the Lisia of the Peutinger Tables, 16 M. P. to the E. of Gortyna. Some
MSS. have Lasea; others, Alassa. The Vulgate reads Thalassa, which Beza contended
was the true name.
(Lasaia). A town in the south of Crete, not far from the Promontorium Samonium mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles.
KALI LIMENES (Port) MIRES
A bay on the S coast of Crete, 7 km E of Cape Lithinon, 2 km W of
Lasaia and 10 km W of Lebena; the bay is well protected from the sudden N winds
and offers good anchorage except from the SE winds of winter; offshore islands
provide protection from the SW.
The site is famous only for the visit of St. Paul on his voyage to
Rome in ca. A.D. 47 (Acts 27:8); one of the offshore islands is known as St. Paul's
Island. The words used in Acts ("we came to a place called Fair Havens, near
which is the city of Lasaia") make it clear that Fair Havens was not a city
but a locality, and imply that it was in the territory of Lasaia, which seems
certain. The point is confirmed by the Stadiasmus (322), which mentions Halai
(= Lasaia) but not Kaloi Limenes.
On the promontory hill which bears the chapel of St. Paul and encloses
the bay from the W, a considerable scatter of sherds attests occupation in the
Roman and Late Roman periods. There is no visible evidence of earlier occupation,
and no remains of harbor installations in the bay except to the E at Lasaia. Just
NW of the modern village, on a rounded hill, stand the foundations of a Roman
farmstead with an enclosure wall, and close by to the NW are two Early Minoan
tholos tombs and traces of a Minoan and Roman settlement.
Farther inland from Kaloi Limenes are considerable remains of occupation
of the Minoan and Graeco-Roman periods. The remains are concentrated in the valley
of a stream which runs W from Pigaidakia in the Asterousia mountains past the
deserted villages of Gavaliana and Yialomonochoro, and then, joined by a tributary
running S from the Odigitria Monastery, turns S past the chapel of Hag. Kyriaki
and reaches the sea 2 km W of Kaloi Limenes, through the gorge of Agiopharango.
Besides a number of isolated farmsteads of the Minoan and Roman periods,
there are important groups of Early Minoan tombs and Early to Late Minoan settlements
at Hag. Kyriaki and at Megaloi Skoinoi to the NE. At Hag. Kyriaki there are also
considerable remains of a settlement of the late 5th to 1st c. B.C.; remains can
be distinguished of a large courtyard house and a (probably public) building (over
18 x 8 m). On the opposite (E) bank of the stream is a farmstead with an enclosure
wall, occupied in the Roman and Late Roman periods, and just to the N a settlement
of the Hellenistic and Roman periods. A clay tablet inscribed with a dedication
to Asklepios was found at Hag. Kyriaki.
The area seems to have had little or no occupation between the end
of the Bronze Age and the late 5th c. B.C., and from the Late Roman period until
after the Arab occupation of Crete (824-961).
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.
LASSEA (Ancient city) MIRES
An extensive Graeco-Roman city 8 km W of Lebena. The earliest remains
in the vicinity are two Early Minoan tholos cemeteries and an Early Minoan settlement,
but there are no other remains earlier than the late 5th c., at which time the
city appears to have been founded. The site was then occupied continuously as
a harbor and city until at least the late Roman period, and was at its most prosperous
and extensive during the period of the Roman occupation.
The site is a small headland, opposite the offshore island of Nissos
Traphos, flanked by two small bays with sandy beaches. An ancient mole, possibly
of Roman date, which runs from the foot of the headland almost to Traphos ensured
calm water in either one of the bays, depending on the direction of the wind.
The late 5th and 4th c. occupation of the site seems to have been
concentrated on the slopes and the flat summit of the low hill which rises immediately
behind the headland. Buildings on the summit include one with foundations entirely
of white blocks, situated right on the seaward edge of the hilltop, overlooking
the whole site. In later periods occupation spread over the whole of the headland,
and along the steep slopes overlooking the bay to the W. Further buildings were
erected to the E of the headland. Over the whole of this area the remains of the
city are still clearly visible, both as a dense spread of broken pottery and as
a mass of stone walls, built of red, green, white, and brown blocks used haphazardly.
On the headland three buildings of some importance can be traced.
In the center of the headland are the remains of a substantial building whose
main feature is an oblong court measuring 27 x 10 m. On the N side it is flanked
by a long narrow hall or corridor 5 m wide, and on the S by a corridor 3 m wide,
which continues along the E and possibly the W sides of the court also. At either
end of the S corridor, against the courtyard wall, is a built altar or statue
base. Beyond the S corridor are suites of almost square rooms. The building seems
likely to have fulfilled a public rather than a private function but its precise
identity is uncertain.
Southwest of the building described the headland has been terraced
to form a natural podium for a temple. A flight of six steps, 10 m wide, survive,
flanked by massive side walls. Set back 3 m from the top of the steps are two
square altar bases, one on either side of the entrance to the cella. Two walls
of the cella survive and show it to have been approximately 5 x 8 m.
Toward the S tip of the headland are the remains of a Christian church,
one corner of which has been lost by erosion of the cliff edge. At the N end of
the building is an apse 8 m in diameter. The nave is of a similar width, and flanking
it are two narrow aisles. Beyond the nave and aisles there may have been a narrow
narthex.
The city was supplied with water by a built aqueduct which ran across
the hill slopes to the E to reach a spring source about a km away. On the NE extremity
of the city the aqueduct appears to have emptied into a large built cistern with
plastered walls. The city's cemeteries lay to the W of the settlement. In the
late Classical and Hellenistic periods burials were in dug graves and cists on
a small headland. Roman burials were in built barrelvaulted tombs a little farther
W.
K. Branigan, 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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