Phalasarna

Phalasarna is an ancient Greek harbor town on the northwest coast of Crete. The currently visible remains of the city were built around 335 BCE and include several imposing sandstone towers and bastions, with hundreds of meters of fortification walls protecting the town and a closed harbor. The harbour is surrounded by quays with mooring stones, and connected to the sea through two artificial channels. Most of these structures were revealed by excavations that began in 1986 and are ongoing.

Today Phalasarna is an agricultural area and tourist attraction. The valley is filled with olive groves and greenhouses cultivating tomatoes. The seaside has large sandy beaches and crystal clear waters that are popular both with residents of Chania and foreign visitors.

Ancient history

Phalasarna was mentioned by ancient historians and geographers Scylax, Strabo, Polybius, Livy, Pliny, Dionysius Kalliphontis, the anonymous geographer known as Stadiasmus, and Stephanos of Byzantium. Phalasarna was known to be at war with another Cretan city, Cydonia, in the third century BC. (Hogan, 2008)

The location of the city was then forgotten, and Phalasarna appears in Venetian records only as a lost city. The site was rediscovered in the 19th century by British explorers Robert Pashley and Captain T. A. B. Spratt. Spratt, of the Royal Navy), noted in 1859 that the former harbour of the deserted site was now 100 yards from the sea and that the ancient sea coast must have risen at least twenty four feet. Modern excavation has confirmed this judgment. Radiocarbon dating of fossil algae along the ancient sea level mark on the cliffs around Phalasarna estimates the sudden sea level change at some time more than sixteen centuries ago. A probable event was the great earthquake and tsunami of 21 July A.D. 365, which wreaked catastrophic damage on all the coasts of the eastern Mediterranean and was recorded by Ammianus Marcellinus, Theophanes, and Georgios Monachos.

But four centuries previously Phalasarna had already been destroyed by the hand of man. The inhabitants were notorious pirates, and when in 68-67 BC the Romans sent forces to eliminate piracy from the eastern Mediterranean they stormed Phalasarna, blocked its harbor with massive masonry, and destroyed the whole city, probably killing its citizens. No ancient sources testify to these events, but evidence of burning and the harbor blockage itself suggest the tentative conclusions of the excavators, Elpida Hadjidaki of the Greek Archaeological Service, and Frank Frost, of the University of California, Santa Barbara.

References

* E Hadjidaki, "Preliminary Report of Excavations at the Harbor of Phalasarna in West Crete," "American Journal of Archaeology", 92 (1988) 463-479

* F. Frost, "Tectonics and History at Phalasarna," "Res Maritimae", American Schools of Oriental Research, Atlanta (1998) 107-115

* F. Frost, E. Hadjidaki, "Excavations at the Harbor of Phalasarna in Crete," "Hesperia" 59 (1990) 513-27

* E Hadjidaki "The Roman Destruction of Phalasarna," "Archaeology of the Roman Empire", edited by N. J. Higham, BAR International Series 940 (2001) 155-166

* C. Michael Hogan, "Cydonia", The Modern Antiquarian, Jan. 23, 2008 [http://letmespeaktothedriver.com/site/10881/cydonia.html#fieldnotes]

* P. A. Pirazzoli, J. Ausseil-Badie, P. Giresse, E. Hadjidaki, and M. Arnold, "Historical Environmental Changes at Phalasarna Harbor, West Crete," "Geoarchaeology" 7 (1992) 371-392