View of Ayia Photia from the north west looking towards the village of the same name

Ayia Photia is located on a small hill along the coast to the east of the modern town of Siteia. The site was originally fortified and contained a large rectangular building with a large central court. The building dates from the MM I A period. The building has a total of 37 rooms or other areas and the fact that these are organised in such a way that groups of rooms open onto the central court but do not connect with other groups of rooms offers the possibility that the site was inhabited by a small number of families, perhaps making up a clan.

Possible tholos tomb built on the remains
of the MM IA building

The location of a plain immediately behind the site suggests that its use was linked to agriculture in some way. It seems to have been abandoned during MM I A.

Two circular structures added at a later date, probably MM IIA, and in one case built over the ruins of the old building, are possibly tholos tombs. At any rate the entrance to the structures is in both cases to the east. Castleden points out that whereas most of the fortified Minoan settlements -- Pyrgos, Fournou Korifi, Khamaizi etc. date from the Pre-Palatial period, Ayia Photia comes later, in the Old Palatial period.

The north west corner of the building

The fact that it has a stout wall around the site and that it was destroyed not long after it was built, raises, for Castleden the possibility that it was, together with Khamaizi, one of a number of coastal military bases that ringed Minoan Crete.

A large Minoan cemetery with over 250 tombs dating from Early Minoan I but continuing in use during Early Minoan II has also been excavated only a short distance from the Ayia Photia site.

For more photos of Agia Photia click here