The excavations at the archaeological site of Falasarna, at the northern end of the bay with its landmark beaches, have been reported piecemeal in the local press since the most recent phase started in 2022. What has been lacking is an account of the rise of the ancient city and the reasons for its decline, which resulted in the remains of the harbour now being situated several hundred metres inland. A local teachers’ association was recently given a tour of the site by a member of the excavation team, Dr Michalis Milidakis, and two of them, Katerina Varanaki and Chrysoula Kapsomenou, wrote an account of the site which places it in a historical context. Published on the Haniotika Neawebsite on 11th November, their account is reproduced in full here.

Chronicle of a Decline
Impressions from a visit to Ancient Falasarna by the “Polydrasi” group of volunteer teachers and friends under the guidance of archaeologist and friend Dr Michalis Milidakis

The 5.1 Richter scale earthquake which occurred near Falasarna beach 32 km north-west of Chania at 16:27 on 23/07/2025 made headlines in the local print and digital media. However, the earthquake which struck at daybreak on 21/07/365 with its epicentre near the shores of Western Crete, at 8+ Richter, is considered the strongest ever recorded in the Mediterranean. This earthquake, with the tsunami which followed, caused destruction throughout the Eastern Mediterranean, in Central and Southern Greece, Libya, Asia Minor, Egypt and chiefly Alexandria. A vivid description of the violent catastrophe is given by the Graeco-Roman soldier and historian Ammianus Marcellinus of the late Roman period:

“A fearsome catastrophe suddenly broke out the like of which is not to be found anywhere… Shortly after the first light of dawn, preceded by thunder and lightning, the whole earth was shaken. The sea drew back and its waters receded to such an extent that the seabed was uncovered. Thus one could see embedded in the mud many sea creatures and many mountain ranges and valleys which, while they were always covered in water, became visible as they were exposed for the first time to the rays of the sun. Many ships were stranded and many people were wandering in the little water which remained, gathering fish and other sea creatures, but the waves returned with elevated height and rushed over the shallow waters, the islands and extensive areas of land, flattening many buildings and whatever they found in their path. Enormous quantities of water killed many thousands of people as they returned. When the rage of the waters subsided, a number of wrecked ships and corpses of sailors were revealed. Some large ships had been flung onto the roofs of houses by the waves and others a distance of up to two miles inland.”

The destruction wrought by the tsunami was such that up to the end of the 6th century the date of the earthquake was commemorated as the “day of terror”. The victims of the earthquake included the city-states of Crete, especially in the west. One of these was ancient Falasarna, which is at the southern end of the Gramvousa peninsula. Although the city had been destroyed by the Romans in 67 BC, the catastrophic earthquake levelled it, while through the movement of the tectonic plates its harbour was raised by around 6-9 metres, with the result that it was transformed into dry land, while the ensuing tsunami literally buried the settlement.

Ancient Falasarna
As we were told by Dr Michalis Milidakis, an archaeologist with the Chania Ephorate of Antiquities, the human presence in ancient Falasarna dates back to prehistoric times; however, the archaeological data place the organisation of the city in the early archaic period. Falasarna received its name from the nymph Falasarni, a local heroine who is related to Nature and the element of water, a source of life and growth.

The city’s peak period is dated to the 4th or 3rd centuries BC, when it became a strong naval power along the trade routes of the Western Mediterranean and was fortified, embellished with temples and public buildings and minted its own currency. The coins show on the face a woman’s head, probably of Diktynna or the nymph Falasarni, and on the reverse the Greek letters “FA” between the prongs of a trident.

Falasarna’s ideal position at the western end of Crete, with immediate links to Alexandria in Egypt, contributed to its rapid development. From there it controlled the marine trade routes towards North Africa and Italy. The inhabitants of Falasarna had trade links with the peoples of the East and had close relations with the Phoenicians.

Like all the Cretan city-states, Falasarna was self-ruling, it had its own laws and was governed by local rulers. In an earlier publication, Dr Elpida Hatzidaki, who has been excavating the site since the 1980s, states that the people of Falasarna served as mercenaries and advisers at the courts of the Hellenistic rulers.

Conflicts and piracy
A traditional adversary of Falasarna was Polyrrinia. There were border disputes between the two cities, as is confirmed by the treaty of alliance which they signed in 290-280 BC, which is on display in the Archaeological Museum of Kissamos. However, a little later an alliance concluded by Falasarna with Knossos and other Cretan cities against Phaestos, which Polyrrinia was allied with, increased the friction between the two cities for a long period. Additionally, according to Polybius (Histories, 22, 15, 2-6), a little before 184 BC Kydonia attacked Falasarna and the conflict between them was settled by the intervention of the Romans. Finally, Knossos and Falasarna gave military support to King Perseus of Macedon in his war against Rome (171-168 BC).

Falasarna was also a hideout for pirates, and it was finally destroyed by the Romans under Metellus in 67 BC, as part of Pompey’s campaign to rid the western Mediterranean of pirates and the establishment of the Pax Romana. As a result, traces of habitation in the city are sparse, although such indications do exist at another site in the area. The earthquakes of 66 and 365 AD finally levelled the site.

The phenomenon of piracy was widely recorded in the ancient Mediterranean world. The looting of ships and cities by armed bands of sailors is referred to by most of the prominent writers and poets of antiquity, from Homer, Herodotus and Thucydides to Livy and Plutarch. Piracy became a mass phenomenon in the Mediterranean Sea, which was the primary geographical area of the time. As a means of acquiring material wealth and slaves it was adopted by all peoples, even if some of these tried to restrict it in times of their hegemonic power. Moreover in the 2nd century BC Delos was an important centre of the slave trade.

The practice of piracy is favoured by a number of factors, such as nautical skills and more generally the experience of peoples who live close to the sea, but also population increases coupled with a reduction in agricultural output, as well as the demand for slaves from “developed communities”. Since navigation was more difficult on the open sea, ships sailed close to the shore and as a result fell easily into the pirates’ clutches. Finally, there were no ethical inhibitions, since there was no distinction between piracy in times of peace and of war, while in Aristotle’s Politics “thievery” is included among the five natural activities which ensure self-sufficiency, along with stock-raising, fishing, hunting and agriculture. This only serves to confirm the view expressed in the Palatine Anthology that “all Cretans are robbers and pirates”.

The suppression of piracy was undertaken for the first time by the Minoans, and later in the classical period by the Athenians (Pericles, Cimon)and also by Alexander the Great. The Romans initially had difficulty in restricting piracy because of their limited naval tradition. However, in 69 BC, on the basis of the powers allotted to him by the Lex Gabinia, Pompey formulated and executed in a short period of time a plan for the elimination of piracy.

As part of this scheme, the Romans completely destroyed Falasarna in 67 BC. In fact, in order to prevent the harbour ever being used again, they blocked the entrance with stones so that only small boats could enter. The city was never able to recover as the great earthquake of 365 AD raised the western shore of the island and the harbour suddenly found itself out of the water.

The archaeological site of ancient Falasarna
The area of the site is bounded by the fortified acropolis of Koutri, on the crest of which there are ruins of buildings, probably temples. The walls have been preserved over a length of 550 metres, they are double in places, constructed on the pseudoisodomum system and dated to the second half of the 4th century BC. It has a closed harbour with fortifications which consisted of an extension of its walls.

At the beginning of the 15th century the Florentine monk and cartographer Cristoforo Buondelmonti visited the area and mentions in his writings that at the top of a hill there is a ancient city with the remains of walls, dwellings and cisterns carved into the natural rock. More recently, in the 19th century, the English travellers Robert Pashley and T.A.B. Spratt visited Falasarna and confirmed the previous information. The rescue excavations carried out since 1966 and systematic excavatory research have enriched our knowledge of the city’s history and gradually brought to light the ancient harbour, the city and the cemetery.

From 2022, the systematic excavations by the Ephorate of Antiquities of Chania, headed by the archaeologist Elpida Hatzidaki accompanied by a selected team, have uncovered the acropolis of the ancient city and the temple of the goddess Demeter, with rich finds which date the cult back to the 7th century BC. At the same time, finds from the Neolithic period have been discovered which are unique for western Crete. The research overall is supported by the Director of the Ephorate of Antiquities of Chania Dr Eleni Papadopoulou.

Finally, the discovery of the temple of Demeter on the acropolis is a reminder of the spiritual and practical role of religion in the life of man through the ages, and the chapel of Agios Georgios on the outskirts of the hill is a confirmation of this. We leave Falasarna with the feeling of being watched by some … ancestors of ours awakened by our curiosity and our enthusiasm. They remind us that they too – each in their own way – were engaged in a struggle for survival, for our locality and our culture. They entrust the thread of continuity to later generations, and remind us all of our debt.

We thank the Ephorate of Antiquities of Chania and especially the archaeologist Dr Michalis Milidakis for the exhaustive tour which he gave us.

The members of Polydrasi
Katerina Varanaki
Chrysoula Kapsomenou
(Haniotika Nea, 11/11/25)