Agia Roumeli

Tara was the ancient coastal town, built on hill slopes at the exit of the Samaria National Forest.

On the west side of the river bed are the remains of an ancient temple, probably of Apollo, on which had been founded early Christian basilica, which became a small church of Panagia.

Within the village of Agia Roumeli have excavated parts of the cemetery of the ancient city. In excavations carried out in 1970 in the seaside location Gialos uncovered parts of the cemetery with graves of the Archaic, Classical, Hellenistic and Roman times. Thirty cist tombs were excavated. The site of a Roman cemetery was used during the early Christian period and a short distance from this building were small, religious use, buildings.

The bay of Agia Roumeli was used in ancient times as a port. The Ephorate Underwater Antiquities considers the possible existence of ancient shipwrecks there. The coast of Tarra until 365 AD, when a strong earthquake took place, had nothing in common with the existing sandy beach. Then the land was raised sharply by almost 4 meters along the coast of Sfakia.

Settlement of the classical era has been identified in the Bible Roumeli Over and over Canadian survey conducted in Sfakia, pointed and prehistoric settlement west of the ancient village of Agia Roumeli.

The Tara is considered to have great workshops glassmaking but test excavations conducted in 1959 yielded no specimens to confirm this view.

Author

Vanna Ni?o - Kindelis, Angeliki Tsingou, Archaeologists