GREECE CRETE LASITHI NEAPOLIS-DREROS

The site of ancient Dreros lies 3 km from Neapolis, on the north side of the highway between Heraklion and Agios Nikolaos. The road to Dreros is signposted and ends at a parking, from where a footpath takes you in about 15 minutes to the site.

The ancient city of Dreros was a typical small polis in the Archaic period, but the history of its settlement is much longer. There are graves from the end of the Bronze Age (11th century BC), the city being founded in the Geometric period. Most prosperous in the 8th - 6th centuries BC, its importance then declined. In the 3rd to 2nd centuries BC Dreros became first an ally and then a dependent of Knossos, but it continued to exist into the Byzantine period.

The city has two acropoleis, extending also on the saddle between them, where there is an agora, one of the oldest temples of all Greece, a Hellenistic cistern, a prytaneion and numerous other architectural remains.

Dreros was first excavated in 1917 by S. Xanthoudides, followed by P. Demargne in 1932 and S. Marinatos in 1935, who discovered the temple of Apollo Delphinios (now protected by a stone-built shed; see below). It dates to the second quarter of the 8th century BC and consists of a simple cella with a rectangular sunken hearth at its center. Originally there were probably two wooden columns. The most exciting find consisted of three statuettes (ca. 650 BC), made of bronze plates hammered over a wooden core, representing Apollo, Artemis and Leto. They are now on display in the Archaeological Museum of Heraklion.

A number of inscriptions found in Dreros also proved to be very remarkable. They include the earliest complete record of constitutional law found in Greece. Another text uses both Greek and the Eteocretan language, demonstrating that at Dreros ancient Cretan traditions mingled with those of the post-Minoan population.

Above: Inside the simple temple of Apollo Delphinios (8th century BC). - Below left: Looking from the east acropolis to the west acropolis, Neapolis in the background.