Elyros ancient city

Elyros was one of the most important cities of southwestern Crete in antiquity. It is referred as a city with strong Doric tradition associated with the worship of God Apollo at the Delphic sanctuary. Its seaport city was Syia, on the cost of the Libyan sea.

The chronological point of the original founding of the city is still undetermined. According to written sources Elyros was the birth place of Thaleta or Thales, a great lyric poet who lived and created his work around the mid-7th century BC. However, as supposed by current archaeological evidence, the city thrived in the 4th century BC and continued ti flourish till late antiquity.

Its site is located in on Kefala Hill near the village of Rodovani. Robert Pashley discovered the site in the 19th century. The first object that presents itself is a building consisting of a series of arches; next, vestiges of walls, especially on the north and northeast sides of the ancient city. The circuit of these must originally have been two miles (3 km); at a slight elevation above are other walls, as of an acropolis. Further on are some massive stones, some pieces of an entablature, and several fragments of the shafts of columns, all that now remains of an ancient temple.