Listed 34 sub titles with search on: Information about the place for wider area of: "TYMBAKI Municipality HERAKLIO" .
AGIA TRIADA (Archaeological site) TYMBAKI
Agia Triada is 64km southwest of Iraklion via the Iraklion - Agia Varvara - Agii Deka - Mires - Festos - Agia Triada road. It is very near Festos. During Minoan times a road ran from Festos to the royal palace of Agia Triada. This palace, or villa, may have been the summer residence of the kings of Festos, although this remains a mystery.
AGIOS IOANNIS (Village) TYMBAKI
The village of Agios Ioannis is very near Festos and contains an interesting
Byzantine church.
FANEROMENI (Village) TYMBAKI
Old village of the municipality of Timbaki with 837 inhabitants. It is built on the right bank of the river "Katsoulidis" in a wonderful green landscape with large groves of citrus trees.
The near by church of "Panagia faneromeni" gave the name to the village.
Various findings from tha ancient times such as a double axe. were discovered in the area.
The churches of "Agios Antonios" and "Panagia" were violated by the Turks in 1866.
FESTOS (Minoan settlement) HERAKLIO
KAMARES (Village) TYMBAKI
The village of Kamares is 57km southwest of Iraklion on the Iraklion
- Agia Varvara - Gergeri - Kamares road. Kamares took its name from the cave used
by the Minoans that is above the village. Kamares means arches in Greek.
A little after Grigoria, at 600m a.s.l., is located the historical village of Kamares with 491 inhabitants. This village was destroyed together with the villages Magarikari and Lohria, by the Germans during the world war II (1944) due to the help that the locals used to offer to the partisans.
Above the village, at 1524m a.s.l. lies the famous CAVE OF KAMARES (Spileon Kamaron). This was used as a place of worship during Minoan times and it was here that Minoan pottery made with exceptional skill was found - called "Kamares ware" by archaeologists.
From Kamares is also possible to climb up to the Idaion Andron.
This text is cited Dec 2003 from the Interkriti URL below, which contains images.
KAMILARI (Village) TYMBAKI
Kamilari is 67km south east of Iraklion on a left (west) turn from
the Matala - Agios Ioannis - Festos road. Near the village of the same name is
the famous Kamilari Tomb, the best-preserved Minoan vaulted tomb in the area,
dating from 2000 B.C.
This text is cited Dec 2002 from the Crete TOURnet URL below, which contains image.
KOKKINOS PYRGOS (Port) TYMBAKI
In the municipality of Timbaki belongs the community of Kokkinos Pirgos (meaning red tower) , that took its name by a castle that was there during the Middle Ages built from red clay earth.
Kokkinos Pirgos is a small coastal community, 2km away from Timbaki, with a fantastic beach, one of the most beautiful beaches in Crete, and a clear transparent sea.
At Kokkinos Pirgos, there are docking facilities for sailing and fishing boats, hotels, restaurants, bars, etc.
This text is cited Dec 2003 from the Interkriti URL below, which contains image.
MAGARIKARI (Village) TYMBAKI
Magarikari is located on the South - western side of the mountain Psiloritis at 450m a.s.l. in a forest of more than 500 ha. It is a rich and picturesque village with plenty of natural beauties and a wonderful view to the valley of Messara, the mountain range of Asterousia and the Libyan sea.
Magarikari is the birthplace of the famous rebel Petrakogiorgis, and was totally destroyed by the Germans during the German occupation.
It is mentioned by the Venetians since the 15 century A.D.
This text is cited Dec 2003 from the Interkriti URL below, which contains images.
MATALA (Village) HERAKLIO
Matala located 71km southwest of Iraklion via the Iraklion - Agia
Varvara - Agii Deka - Mires - Matala road is on the coast, south of the town of
Timbaki. Matala is quite a large town with a good range of tourist facilities
from which you can easily reach the archaeological sites of Festos, Agia Triada,
and Gortyn. Various other beaches of southern Crete are also nearby. Matala has
remains of Minoan, Greek, Roman and early Byzantine eras. Matala has revised its
former image of a hippie settlement and there are presently no signs of that era.
Now it has many attractive tourist facilities and a pleasant ambience. There is
a market that has a bazaar atmosphere with many shop doors opening onto the covered
street. The roads from Iraklion are good and a direct trip will take 2 hours.
From Matala, Agia Galini in the southern part of Rethimnon prefecture is easily
reached. Ierapetra although further, is an equally interesting journey. There
are frequent buses to the these destinations as well as many other local ones.
This text is cited Feb 2003 from the Crete TOURnet URL below, which contains images.
VORI (Village) HERAKLIO
The village of Vori is north of the road from Mires to Timbaki in
the Mesara Plain, and it is 62km from Iraklion following the Iraklion - Agia Varvara
- Agii Deka - Mires - Timbaki road. In Vori there is a very good museum of Cretan
Ethnology, and the area near Vori has interesting Byzantine churches.
FESTOS (Minoan settlement) HERAKLIO
Phaistos: Eth. Phaistios. A town in the S. of Crete, distant 60 stadia
from Gortyna, and 20 from the sea. (Strab. x. p. 479; Plin. iv. 12. s. 20.) It
s said to have derived its name from an eponymous hero Phaestus, a son of Hercules,
who migrated from Sicyon to Crete. (Paus. ii. 6. § 7; Steph. B. s. v.; Eustath.
ad Hom. l. c.) According to others it was founded by Minos. (Diod. v. 78; Strab.
l. c.) It is mentioned by Homer (Il. ii. 648), and was evidently one of the most
ancient places in the island. It was destroyed by the Gortynians, who took possession
of its territory. (Strab. l. c.) Its port was Matalum, from which it was distant
40 stadia, though it was only 20 from the coast. (Strab. l. c.) We also learn
from Strabo that Epimenides was a native of Phaestus. The inhabitants were celebrated
for their sharp and witty sayings. (Athen. vi. p. 261, e.) Phaestus is mentioned
also by Scylax, p. 18; Polyb. iv. 55.
Stephanus B. (s. v. Phaistos) mentions in the territory of Phaestus
a place called Lisses, which he identifies with a rock in the Odyssey (iii. 293),
where in our editions it is not used as a proper name, but as an adjective,--lisse,
smooth. Strabo (l. c.) mentions a place Olysses or Olysse in the territory of
Phaestus (Olussen tes Phaistias); but this name is evidently corrupt; and instead
of it we ought probably to read Lisses. This place must not be confounded with
Lissus. which was situated much more to the W.
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
MATALON (Ancient city) HERAKLIO
Matalia (Mtalia, Ptol. iii. 17. § 4), a town in Crete near the headland of Matala(Matala,
Stadiasm.), and probably the same place as the naval arsenal of Gortyna, Metallum
(Metallon, Strab. x. p. 479), as it appears in our copies of Strabo, but incorrectly.
(Comp. Groskurd, ad loc.) The modern name in Mr. Pashley's map is Matala. (Hock,
Kreta, vol. i. pp. 399, 435 Mus. Class. Antiq. vol. ii. p. 287.)
FESTOS (Minoan settlement) HERAKLIO
A town in the southern part of Crete, near Gortyna, twenty stadia from the sea, with a port-town Matala, said to have been built by Phaestus, son of Heracles. It was the birthplace of Epimenides.
MATALON (Ancient city) HERAKLIO
FESTOS (Minoan settlement) HERAKLIO
Classical and Hellenistic city situated 5 km W of Mires. The site
is best known for its Minoan palace and underlying pre-palatial village. There
was, however, a flourishing Geometric settlement there, and occupation continued
in the archaic, Classical, and Hellenistic periods. The extensive city of the
last period was eventually destroyed by the neighboring city of Gortyn in the
middle of the 2d c. B.C.
Remains of the Geometric settlement are most impressively preserved
on the slopes at the SE foot of the acropolis hill. Here several well-constructed
houses are served by a cobbled road which has been traced up the S slope of the
hill toward the old W court of the Minoan palace. Traces of a Geometric defense
wall around the acropolis have also been noted in excavation. Of the archaic period,
the only building to survive in recognizable form is an oblong structure at the
SW corner of the palace, which is usually identified as a temple, probably dedicated
to Rhea. Archaic deposits have been found elsewhere on both the hill and the lower
slopes, however.
Hellenistic remains are the most widespread and best preserved at
Phaistos. They are known to cover an area extending from immediately W of the
palace, down the slopes W of (and originally probably over) the W Court, and thence
farther down the slopes either side of a Hellenistic successor to the Geometric
roadway, to the area of the earlier Geometric settlement. On the SE slopes of
the hill, Hellenistic houses were found to belong to two phases, the earlier destroyed
by earthquake and the latter, presumably, by the Gortynians. A fine series of
Hellenistic houses, terraced into the steep hillside, have been excavated on the
S and SW slopes of the hill, but these were removed in order to facilitate the
excavation of Minoan levels. The best-preserved Hellenistic houses are therefore
those standing on a platform above the W Court. Most of the remains here belong
to a single house with a small open courtyard around which were grouped the main
domestic rooms.
Although the city was destroyed in the mid 2d c. B.C., it is clear
that there was some sporadic Roman occupation of the site. Early excavations found
Roman deposits above the palace, and more recently an extensive though shabbily
built late Roman farmhouse has been discovered overlying the destroyed Hellenistic
buildings on the SE slopes.
The city's water supply probably came from the river Hieropotamos,
which runs around the base of the hill, and from a series of deep wells, of which
a Hellenistic example has been excavated on the SW slopes. Matala, 9 km to the
SW, served as the principal port for Phaistos, although Komo is thought to have
continued to operate as its port after the close of the Bronze Age. Finds from
the site are mainly in the Herakleion Archaeological Museum, although some of
the pottery material is in the Stratigraphic Museum at Phaistos itself.
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 34 image(s), bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
MATALON (Ancient city) HERAKLIO
Lies on a tiny bay 8 km N of Cape Lithinon on the Gulf of Matala.
Now a small fishing village, it was in Roman times one of the two outports or
epineia of Gortyn, the other being Lebena. In prehistoric and Classical times
it may have served as the port of Phaistos, the alternative site for the prehistoric
port being Kommos, just beyond the headland to the N. Matala is described by Strabo
as 130 stades from Gortyn and 40 stades from Phaistos (10.4.11,14); mentioned
by Ptolemy (3.15.3) as Matalia and by the Stadiasmus (323-24) as a city with a
harbor. Near Matala was the "lisse petra" where Menelaus' ships were
wrecked on his journey home from Troy (Od. 3293ff): probably Cape Nysos, the cape
between Matala and Kommos, but possibly Cape Lithinon itself.
Subject to Phaistos in the 3d c. B.C., Matala was captured in ca.
219, along with Lebena, by young Gortynian exiles at war with their elders (Polyb.
4.55.6); and when Phaistos came under the control of Gortyn in the mid 2d c. B.C.,
Matala became a second port for Gortyn.
On the N and S sides of the bay are over 100 chambers cut at several
levels in the calcareous sandstone cliffs. Many of these certainly served as tombs,
with benches and side-niches for offerings cut in the rock, and a floor level
below the entrance level. Some chambers investigated recently contained lamps
of the 1st and 2d c. A.D. On the S side of the bay some of the chambers are now
submerged, with their floors 1.8 m and their thresholds 1.5 m under water (Lembesi),
which shows that there has been a relative rise in sea level, at least partly
owing to land subsidence; Evans' estimate of a relative rise of 5 m is, however,
excessive. At the SE corner of the bay there is a deep cutting in the cliff, 5.8
m wide and at least 38 m long, with a rock-cut floor and side-chamber: a slipway,
probably covered, for a warship; probably Graeco-Roman in date, but possibly later.
The stumps of rock-cut bollards of uncertain date line the seaward edge of the
rock shelf along the S side of the bay. No other remains of harbor installations
can now be seen; in antiquity ships would have moored, as today, in the S part
of the bay, protected from the prevailing SW wind. The sandy E shore of the bay
is exposed and pounded by surf; an apparent platform in its center is a natural
formation of beach rock.
The ancient settlement lay mainly on the hill S of the bay, where
Spratt saw "vestiges of a small walled fortress, built with mortar and small
stones." An inscribed base of the 2d-3d c., of a statue of Artemis Oxychia,
was found here recently, and marble fragments, columns, and foundations, perhaps
of granaries or warehouses, in the plain at the head of the bay. The visible ancient
remains are almost entirely of the Roman period, but remains of the Classical
period may be assumed to lie beneath; tombs of the 4th c. B.C. have been found
in the vicinity. No coins of Matala are known, and very few inscriptions. There
is little trace of Bronze Age occupation at Matala, but Kommos has evidence of
occupation in the Neolithic and Bronze Ages, and also in the Geometric period.
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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