Crete-Discover the Unknown Crete

C H A P T E R 5
The Christian
basilica has
fallen into ruin,
but contains the
columns of the
central nave,
salvaged from
Roman and
Greek buildings
populace could request the help of Ptolemy
Philadelphos to bring down the aristocratic
government that oppressed them.
In the ninth century the city, already badly
damaged by an
earthquake, was razed to
the ground by pirates and,
after some attempts at
rebuilding it, was
definitively abandoned in
the fifteenth century,
becoming the "deserted
city". At Itanos we can see
the ruins of each of the
city's periods of glory - the
walls of the Greek houses,
the Hellenistic fortifications, the Roman
storerooms dug into the rock, the necropolis
and the remains of a three-naved early
Christian basilica constructed with materials
salvaged from the older buildings.
A stone's throw from Itanos, the famous
sandy beach of Vai stretches out in the
shade of a vast palm grove. Legend has it
that it was the Saracens who brought the
palm to this area: pitching their tents near
the shoreline and living off dates, the dense
palm grove is thought to have grown from
the date-pits that they dropped there.
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