The cisterns
Underground vaults and stone arches you walk into.
Aeleftherios โ CC BY-SA 3.0 ยท Carole Raddato โ CC BY-SA 2.0 ยท Carole Raddato โ CC BY-SA 2.0 ยท Carole Raddato โ CC BY-SA 2.0
Because they are **standing complete** rather than foundations. Most archaeological sites in Crete are ground-level ruins that take imagination to read; here you go down steps into **enormous chambers roofed with vaults and high stone arches** still carrying themselves after eighteen centuries, with your voice echoing in them. They stored the whole city's rainwater โ which explains how a large city lived on a plateau with no river. โ Inside is **relatively dark and cool** with uneven ground โ watch your footing, and a phone light helps.
Worth it for anyone in western Crete with half a day, and **for different reasons than Knossos or Phaistos**. Aptera is not a Minoan palace but a **complete city** that lived a thousand years and accumulated layers: Greek, Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman on one site. Its practical merit is **the quiet**: close to Chania (20 minutes) and yet nearly always empty โ you walk it more or less alone, which is impossible at Knossos. Combine it with **Souda Bay**, or take it on the way east towards Rethymno.
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An ancient city on a plateau above **Souda Bay** east of Chania, among the most powerful in western Crete for over a thousand years โ from the Minoan period until the earthquake that destroyed it in the seventh century AD. Its name means **"wingless"**, and legend holds that the **Sirens** competed here against the Muses in music and lost, tearing off their wings in shame and throwing themselves into the sea. Its most impressive feature is the **Roman cisterns**: three enormous underground chambers with vaults and high stone arches, which you go into and walk through โ their scale is startling, and they stored the city's water. This is by far the best thing on the site. With them are a restored **Roman theatre**, the remains of temples and walls, and a twelfth-century **Byzantine monastery** within the site. On the edge of the plateau stands the Ottoman **Koules fort**, with a view over the whole bay. โ The site is **very quiet** and rarely crowded despite being close to Chania.
Underground vaults and stone arches you walk into.
The whole bay from the plateau's edge.
Greek temples, a Roman theatre, a Byzantine monastery, an Ottoman fort.
Aptera, Megala Chorafia, 73003 Chania