By John Freedman
Originally posted elsewhere July 28, 2019
Reposted on Contemplating Crete April 11, 2021
Crete has made me wish I had gone into archaeology way back in the dark ages of my own life. I live in a city (Chania) where we walk on the buried remains of the great city-state of Kydonia, most of the time knowing nothing about it. This makes it all the more satisfying that there are myriads of ancient Cretan cities we can travel to in modern vehicles and walk the old streets and lanes with our aging, aching (or spry, young!) feet. Ancient Phalasarna (falAsarna) is located about a 5 to 10 minute drive from the popular contemporary beach at Falasarna. Most sources use the “Ph” for the ancient city, taking it from the old Greek, whereas “F” is usually used to represent that Greek phoneme these days. There were many gems in ancient Crete, and Phalasarna was one, although the remains we see today are relatively modest. Before you even reach the archaeological site, located approximately one hour’s drive west of Chania, you come upon an incredibly imposing throne standing in all its glory by the side of the dirt road. All by its lonesome, surrounded by some low trees and shrubs, there is something very moving about this piece that has been carved from a single stone. It is jarringly incongruous and undeniable – there it is, the ancient world right there by your car door. Scholars believe it was dedicated to the Phoenician goddess Astarte, who was the protectress of all seafarers. The entrance to the city is a little further along the road and there is not much left. There are some walls snuggled into the hills and scattered in the plain, the remains of a tower or two, the remains of a man-made channel that turned a natural lagoon into one of the most sophisticated closed harbors in the Mediterranean of the time. Phalasarna was founded by the Dorians (Greeks) in the 7th century BC. It grew to be one of the most powerful cities on the island and in the general area. It appears to have been modeled on a Phoenician-style plan. It minted its own coins and its crafts (vases and statues) were known and valued in Athens. Wealthy and powerful, the city expanded significantly in the 4th c. BC – this may be when the natural lagoon was turned into a harbor. But power and wealth brings its own problems, and Phalasarna found itself at constant war with other great city-states such as Phaistos and Polyrrhenia, the latter of which was one of its closest neighbors. Pacts with the great cities of Kydonia and Knossos were not enough to save Phalasarna in the end. Earthquakes and 100 years of warreduced it to a city that, like many Cretan cities in that era, relied on piracy to survive. The Romans, intent on ending the rampant piracy, destroyed Phalasarna in 69 BC., blocking up its harbor with huge rocks that ensured nothing but small fishing boats would ever enter or exit the harbor again. The final blow, however, came from Mother Nature when the city was hit by one of the most powerful earthquakes in history. So violent was this jolt in 365 AD, that the harbor floor lurched 6.5 meters (21 feet) skyward in the span of approximately one second. That, naturally, was the end of the once-great sea power Phalasarna. [Photos restored Dec. 10, 2019]
All text and photos © 2019 John Freedman. If you wish to reproduce, repost or use any of the text or any photo, please ask for permission. Renewal of copyright © 2021 John Freedman.
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