.. "All the world's a stage" .. Aptera, Crete

The weather forecast was not conducive to a beach day at Georgioupolis, so we decided to undertake island exploration instead. I held the vaguest memory of an ancient site, described to us by fellow hotel guests, during our previous stay at Arosmari Apartments, Vamos. Archaeology perched on hill, or above a cliff overlooking the Mediterranean Sea? Roman perhaps?

Sharing this uncertain description with our Simpson’s holiday representative, Susan had immediately recognised the site as Aptera; the remains of a walled city-state located on Paliokastra Hill, overlooking Souda Bay.

Aptera blew our expectations away – the visible archaeology spanning from the 4th or 5th Century BC, through the Roman period; to the 20th Century pill boxes, the legacy of the German Occupation during WWII, and the Monastery of Agios Ioannis Theologos built in the Venetian Period, and still in use up until the 1960’s.

the two-room temple 5th Century BC

WWII German Pill Box (rems)

Monastery of Agios Ioannis Theologos

Aptera's city-state walls (4th Century BC rems)

As a hill-top city with no natural springs to exploit, water was a vital resource to collect and store – the Greco-Roman effort to this endeavour was very much apparent in two of the remaining constructions on site. The L-shaped cistern and the three-aisled cistern are monumental buildings, with the latter holding the grandeur that I would normally associate with a Cathedral.

Greco-Roman L-shaped cistern

Greco-Roman three aisled cistern

However, for us the jewel in the crown was the Hellenistic theatre – which despite the state of ruin, still viscerally evoked the excitement of live drama, the sounds and smells of the audience seated upon its terraces.

Exit Stage Left

Climbing the short flight of stairs from the cobbled street approach to the top row of the theatre’s seating, I felt jostled, hurried, and engulfed by the ancient crowd. I simply buzzed. It was an unexpectedly emotional experience.

And, then there was the briefest of moments when A and I were the sole occupants of the theatre; joking and laughing together as we shared misremembered Shakespeare and Monty Python quotes.

Elsewhere in the complex you can find two examples of Roman bath houses, a Roman house with peristyle, and remains of later buildings dating to the Venetian period.

Roman bath with cobbled floor

Roman building with peristyle

Resources

Ministry of Culture and Sports (no date) Aptera A tourist guidebook available on site