History

At position Riza, close to Achladia village N. Platon revealed in 1952 a Minoan Rural Mansion (1600-1550BC). The building occupies an area of 270 sqm and consists of 12 apartments with a main entrance on the east, an entrance hall, kitchen, storerooms and (possibly) a stall.

Sivrytos (Sibryta) is an ancient town built on the hill Kefala near the current villages Thronos and Agia Fotini. It was founded during the dark years of ancient Crete, after the destruction of the Minoan civilization (1200BC) when the desperate Minoans founded cities in the most inhospitable and inaccessible peaks of the Cretan mountains, but flourished mainly in the Greco-Roman times.

The Minoan settlement at ‘Fournou by in Myrtos is a prime example of an establishment of the first phase of the Minoan civilization, before the construction of palaces. The settlement appears to have been founded before 2500 B.C., and had a violent end before 2100 B.C. It was walled, built on a hill, and contained about a hundred rooms in thick array.

Remains of an extensive centre of the Old Palace period (1950-1700 B.C.) have been uncovered.at the site called Gournes, near the village of Apodoulou, at the west foot of Psiloritis. The site dominates the Amari valley and controls the main route to the Messara plain.

Like dozens of places in Crete, also the area of Kokkino Horio was chosen by the German Nazis during the Second World War to construct several tunnels. The location they chose for the most important of these tunnels was the hill of Drapanokefala that offers panoramic inspection of the entire bay of Souda.

At the eastern edge of Pera Galini beach, the small cape of Kefali is formed. The ruins of a Minoan settlement, which is thought to have been an important port in the region, have been discovered there.

The ancient town Falanna was located at the position of the abandoned settle Onithe, near Goulediana. It covers a large plateau in a naturally fortified site. The first use of the site is dated in the Neolithic Age, but the town flourished during the archaic times (7-6th century BC). It was a small town depended on city Rithimna.

At the road connecting Piskokefalo and Sitia we meet the remains of an excavated two-storey Minoan mansion. We can still discern the remnants of rooms, stairs and the protective boulders coming from the neighbouring river of Pantelopotamos or the sea.