About 45 km south of the administrative centre of Crete, Heraklion, near the village of Agia Deka, in the picturesque Messara Valley lie the ruins of the ancient city of Gortyna, one of the oldest cities in Greece.
The results of archaeological excavations prove that people lived in the Messara Valley since the Neolithic period. The artefacts found during the excavations confirm that a settlement existed here during the Minoan civilisation, but most likely it was relatively small and had little influence. Gortyna of the period of "heroic times" is described by Homer as a well-fortified prosperous city. However, it is worth noting that rather little is known about this period in the city's history.
As early as the 8th century BC. Gortyna was a very large and developed polis, competing for the "palm of superiority" with its strong and prosperous neighbour, the city of Festus. The famous ancient Greek philosopher Plato wrote in his works about Gortyna as one of the richest and most influential cities of Crete. The city flourished during the Roman rule, becoming the capital of the province of Crete and Cyrenaica, and after the administrative and territorial reforms of Diocletian, the capital of the province of Crete. Gortyna was destroyed around 828 during the invasion of the Arabs.
Today Gortyna is one of the most important archaeological monuments of Greece, as well as one of the most interesting and popular attractions of Crete, where you can see the Roman Thermae, Praetorium, Odeon, Temple of Apollo, sanctuaries of such Egyptian deities as Isis, Serapis and Anubis, the Basilica of St. Titus and much more. Gortyna became world famous largely thanks to the so-called "Gortyn Laws" - one of the most important and most complete sets of ancient Greek legislation. The laws carved on stone slabs were discovered during excavations in 1884, causing a real furore among scholars. Although some of them are now exhibited in museums, including the famous Louvre, fragments of slabs with ancient inscriptions can still be seen in the ruins of the Odeon of Gortyna.
