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Ruins of the ancient Gortyn
Gortyn (or Gortyna) is located in the middle of the fertile Messara plain, a strategic area inhabited since the Neolithic period. The remains of a villa from the Minoan period were found in Kannia. However, Gortyn flourished only just in the Archaic period (7th-6th c. BC), while the Dorians who had taken over the island of Crete were establishing their city-states. The city’s earliest agora was organised on the site of the later Odeon. Fortifications were built in the 7th century BC.
A second agora was created later in the Hellenistic period in the area of the temple of Pythian Apollo. Today, its ruins are overgrown by an old olive grove.
Gortyn code
The Gortyn code, inscriptions from V c. BC testifying to the influence exercised by Gortyn on other Cretan cities, is displayed on the walls of Odeon. The Code presents, among others legal position of slaves of that time. The regulations it contains indicate better position of women than in other Greek poleis (these are the remains of an earlier system, when the inheritance was in the female line).
The Roman capital of the province of Crete
In the Hellenistic period (3rd-1st c. BC) Gortyna defeated Phaistos and brought the entire plain of Messara under its control. When in 69 BC the Romans conquered Crete, Gortyn became the capital of the joint provinces of Creta et Cyrenaica. From the Roman period come the ruins of the Basilica of St. Titus from the 6th century, then the most important church on Crete. St. Titus the apostle founded the first Christian church on Crete at Gortyna. The letter to Titus from the New Testament was addressed to him, the first bishop of Crete.
The city was destroyed by the Saracens, Arab invaders, in the early 9th c. AD and has remained uninhabited ever since.
Although the ruins of ancient Gortyna are as interesting as the ruins of Minoan palaces, it is definitely less visited. A completely calm hot summer evening allows for lonely, almost relaxing wandering in the shade of olive trees 🙂 , in search of partially excavated ruins of the old city.
Photographs of Gortyn
Crete in late summer 
Messara plain 
Basilica of St. Titus 
Ruins of the Odeon 
Ruins of the Odeon 
Hemispherical piled up benches of the Roman Odeon 
The Gortyn code 
The Gortyn code 
Ruins of the Odeon 
Ancient ruins 
Archaeological site 
Supported vault 
Ruins of the Odeon and in the background the ruins of the theater on the mountain slope 
Ruins of the temple of Pythian Apollo (on the right) and a monumental hellenistic altar 
Ruins of the praetorium 
The ruins of the praetorium and the olive grove 
Partially excavated Roman Gortyna
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Carly BB
I am a passionate enthusiast of travel, archeology, photography and dancing 🙂 On this page I try to combine the first three elements: P and show you that travelling becomes definitely more interesting when we discover visited places, and often inconspicuous ruins hide the most fascinating stories 🙂