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LEVIN (Ancient city) GORTYNA
On the Libyan Sea, a small Hellenistic and Roman settlement centered
around the medicinal springs. The settlement was founded in the 4th c. B.C. probably
as a spa, but during the Roman period it grew and prospered as one of the two
harbors of Gortyn. It was probably not abandoned until the 9th c., some time after
the building of a Byzantine basilica which was later covered by the church of
Haghios Joannis.
Several of the principal buildings of the settlement can still be
seen, most of them directly connected with its function as a spa. Overlooking
the center of the harbor is a close-set complex of buildings dominated by the
Temple of Asklepios. The cella, with a floor of marble slabs and mosaic panels,
retains its altar and the two columns which stand immediately before it. North
of the temple is the building known as the Treasury, built in the 2d or 1st c.
B.C., and fronted by a monumental marble staircase. At right angles to the staircase
and the temple was a long abaton, at the E of which was situated the Temple of
the Nymphs. The temple complex formed an angle around the source of the healing
waters while S of the complex were two basins for medicinal bathing.
Closer to the shore, traces of other buildings can be seen. The largest
is a long, narrow building which seems to have been subdivided into many small
rooms, each with an apse overlooking the harbor. This seems likely to have been
the main hostel for visitors to the spa. Whether or not the large building to
the S also served as a hostel is less certain. Walls belonging to much smaller
buildings situated on the opposite, E, side of the harbor are identified as the
remains of domestic houses.
A number of inscriptions from the site, mainly relating to the cures
obtained there, are kept in the Herakleion museum together with the rich array
of Early Bronze Age material recovered from five circular communal tombs excavated
in the vicinity of Lebena.
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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