Vasiliki Ierapetra

The settlement of Vasiliki is one of the first Minoan settlements with town-planning. It occupies the top and slopes of a low hill near the village Vasiliki, in the vicinity of the Minoan settlement of Gournia. The first settlement dates back to the Early Minoan II period (2600-2300 B.C.) and owed its development not only to the strategic position, controlling the Isthmus of Ierapetra, but also to the neighbouring fertile plains. The central building of the settlement was destroyed by fire in around 2300 B.C.

The hill was again occupied in the Middle Minoan period as attested by a building of that period (2200-1900 B.C.), while traces of habitation date back to the Roman Times. The first excavations were conducted by the American archeologists H. Boyd at first R.B. Seager sometime later, in the early 1900s. In 1970 systematic excavations were started by A. Zoes for the Archeological Society. The oldest excavation was cleared and stratigraphically researched. The excavation works are continued to the present day.