Will the Real Aptera Please Stand Up?
An attempt to clear up some confusions concerning Ancient Aptera
Ancient Aptera is surely worth a visit. It is advisable to drive up there early in the morning, preferably
before 10 AM when a couple of buses usually arrive and the site can get a little crowded - sometimes.
Put on some good shoes, so you'll be able to leave the main paths and explore the grounds.
It's not only the ruins one can enjoy here, but also the stunning views in all directions and - during spring -
an amazing variety of wild flowers.
When you look towards the sea, you'll understand at once why this spot was chosen by the Greeks, the Romans, the Turks and even the Germans during WWII - because you can see far and wide and get ample notice of any incoming ship. If they were traders, one would send down officials to collect taxes - if they were pirates or other enemies, one would alarm the troops - or start shooting right away from the top of the hill.
A cat hiding between the fallen pillars of the Roman Villa
However, when you walk around Aptera, please remember that hardly anything of what you are seeing is Greek - and certainly not Minoan!
It is true that the once important city of Aptera (or Aptara) has been mentioned in 3,300 year old texts found at Knossos, and so it is quite certain that - as you walk - you're treading just a few meters above unknown treasures of the Minoan civilisation. It will, however, take a billionaire or a large grant from the EU in order to dig that deep - and neither you nor I are allowed to do it.
What you do see all around is the following:- A very large Turkish bastion, often erroneously called Aptera Fortress, built in 1866 - towards the end of the occupation of Crete (1669 - 1898).
- A Christian monastery and chapel built in the 12th century (right on top of a destroyed Greek temple to the Muses) around which a small village known as Paleokastro once stood - until the village was destroyed in the 16th century.
Both of the buildings mentioned above have nothing at all to do with Ancient Aptera; they simply stand within the perimeter of the various ancient cities (Minoan, Greek, Roman) with that name.
Surely the 19th century can't be called ancient - not even the 12th century can be given that qualification.
- Most of the other ruins you can see are Roman bathhouses and the cisterns that supplied these with water, remnants of a Roman Villa (photograph above), walls of a public building, and the foundations of a two-chambered temple to unknown deities. It was the Roman elite, of course, who lived here atop the large city, their thousands of slaves lived and toiled in the fertile valleys you can still see surrounding the site.
- What you also can see, here and there, are remnants of the old fortification walls that surrounded the truly ancient Aptera, built by Greeks from the mainland during the so-called Geometric (900 - 700 BCE) and Archaic Period (700 - 480 BCE). That (Greek) Aptera was at its zenith in the Classical Period (480 - 323 BCE), after which it was destroyed by two major earthquakes in the 5th and 8th century - and finally abandonded.
- Something you can't see - although it is there - is a large open-air (Roman) theatre found not far from the present day entrance. That area, however, is still closed to visitors because the dig is unfinished and is at present hidden among olive trees and surrounded by fences.
- And then there are some really beautiful statues you cannot see because they have been stolen - and are now in the Istanbul Archaeological Museum. Yes, that's in Turkey - you're absolutely right.
- Other items from Aptera, too small and/or valuable to leave in the open - unprotected - can be seen in the Archaeological Museum of Chania.
The archaeological site of Ancient Aptera is open (except on Mondays!) from 08.30 to 15.00 hours. As of now (June 2008), there is no entrance fee.
What I find truly terrible about so-called Ancient Aptera are the prominent machinegun positions
from the second World War someone has thought should be preserved, remains from the German occupation
of Crete (1941 - 1945). Marked by the Department of Antiquities in the very same way as the
Roman ruins or the Greek temple, these are a complete disgrace for an otherwise rather interesting site.
Considering that the same Department of Antiquities, together with the municipality of Souda, seems to make a
major effort to promote Aptera as a must-see-spot for tourists (hence the
renaming of Megala Chorafia - calling it Aptera now), one can only hope that
someone is wise enough to recognize that a dreamy stroll through ancient history shouldn't be marred by
encounters of German Machinegun Positions.
As for Minoan remains of Aptera, one has to actually leave the site and take the road towards Stylos [U-turn on the village square] - but I have to tell you right away that visitors are more or less discouraged to visit the three small (fenced) digs approximately halfway to that village. In the world of archaeology, these finds are regarded as the Stylos excavations, but as the map wil show - they most likely belong to the outskirts of Aptera; known in Minoan-Mycenian Linear B language as A-pa-ta-wa.
If that name sounds strange - that's the way languages usually change over time. The present day city of Chania
(Khania) was earlier known as Kydonia and appears in Linear B as Ku-do-ni-ja.
The following map shows the three finds marked as orange dots on a map from Google Earth, the
names of Aptera and the other villages have been added by me to aid the adventurous explorer.
Here a few photographs:
For more information concerning the various periods in the history of Crete and the Minoan roots of what often is called the first European civilization, click here and/or here.