The ancient city of Aptera dates back to the 8th century BC and was only opened to the public in 2016. You can see a Roman Villa, Amphitheater and Cistern, the tiny Monastery of St John and on the opposite hill the Koules Fortress.
What’s there to see
There is the amphitheater which is really well preserved (having been buried for thousands of years as Aptera was hit by an earthquake in 364AD), a Roman Villa dating back to 100BC, the Monastery of St John built in the 3rd century AD (it was still in use until 1964) and a quite spectacular Roman Cistern (and what’s left of the public baths) for which it provided plentiful amounts of water and just a short drive down the hill is the Koules Fortress. So it’s well worth a visit.
Aptera was one of the most significant city-states of Crete. The site is located on a plateau of an altitude of 200m above Souda Bay, about 15km away from the city of Chania.
Look out for the brown road signs off the national road after the turn off for Souda. There a large car park. Entrance to the whole site is only 2 Euros. There are public toilets but no other facilities.
The Monastery of St John Theologos
The monastery is very small and quaint
If you want to watch a video of the sights in Aptera go to the Visit Greece website. (It’s the same video that’s shown in the museum.)
Roman Cistern
The Roman cistern is huge and really well preserved. It gathered rain water from the rooves of buildings via a network of tunnels and stored enough water for 2 public baths houses.
The Roman Baths
The Baths haven’t survived as well probably due to numerous earthquakes over the years.
The Koules Fortress
The two city ports of Minoa (today’s Marathi over in the distance) and Kisamo (current Kalives down below) made Aptera one of the most important commercial centres of Crete.
When you get to the top you can see the natural harbour spread out before you. It was the control of this harbour, right in the middle of the Mediterranean, that made Aptera, and Crete, so powerful. No wonder the USA have a Naval base here.
If you have time drive down to Kalyves as it’s a very pretty town with a lovely sandy beach but it does get very busy in the summer.