Koules mountain

The fort Koules is located in Paleokastro area, 12km east of Chania, near the village Megala Chorafia and close to the ruins of ancient Aptera. The fort was built by the Ottomans after the Cretan Revolution of 1866, during of a large scale program to control Crete through a network of defensive towers, called koules. The fortress was constructed by Hussein Avni Pasha, the Turkish governor of Crete, and is a representative sample of the defensive architecture of the 19th century.

The fort was built to control the valley of Apokoronas, which was the main passage to Chania area from the central part of Crete. Moreover, in  collaboration with several towers built by the Turks in the area of Apokoronas, it controlled the bay of Souda and supported the nearby fort Intzedin.