Postcard Pictures: The lost city of Atlantis

Postcard Pictures: The lost city of Atlantis: The  picturesque fishing village of Elounda on the Gulf of Korfos  in Eastern Crete embraces its vivid  Minoan, Greek, Roman, Byzantine, Ven...

It boasts the sunken remains of the lost Minoan city of Olous; the remains of a Byzantine chapel, Venetian salt flats and French feats of engineering.

A small stone bridge over a canal (Poros) links the mainland with a seven kilometer isthmus - the Spinalonga Peninsular,  colloquially named Kolokythia  (zucchini in Greek).

The canal was built by the French Army in 1897 in order to link the Gulf of Mirabello Bay with Korfos Bay.

 

Turn right at the Poros past two old windmills and head behind the little church to a 4th Century Byzantine church. All that remains is a beautiful mosaic floor featuring dolphins frolicking in the bay.

 

 
Folklore suggests that Olous may in fact be the lost city of Atlantis, and when the waters of the bay are calm, it is possible to snorkel over the walls to explore the sunken the remains.


 http://postcardpictures.blogspot.com.au/2012/04/lost-city-of-atlantis.html

 

 

Ancient Olous, the sunken city

Touring in Crete: Spinalonga island and Elounda village

Elounda

Olous or Olus is an ancient, sunken city situated at today’s town of Elounda in Crete.

Archaeologists discovered ancient texts within the ruins linking the town to the ancient cities of Knossos and the island of Rhodes. The sunken city can be visited by tourists swimming in Elounda Bay. Today, the only visible remnants of the city are some scattered wall bases.

Olous, and accordingly the wider region, were depopulated at the middle of the 7th century because of the raids of the Arab pirates in the Mediterranean Sea. Olous remained deserted until the mid-15th century when the Venetians began to construct salt-pans in the shallow and salty waters of the gulf. Subsequently, the region acquired commercial value and became inhabited. This fact, in combination with the emergent Turkish threat, particularly after the Fall of Constantinople in 1453, and the continuous pirate raids, forced the Venetians to fortify the island of Spinalonga.

The sunken city of Olous near Elounda (photo taken from www.gtp.gr).

Geographical Data

Type of location:	Archaeological site
Other Names:	OLUS (Bibliography)
Postal Code:	72053
Tel	+30 28410
Longitude:	25o 42' 60" E
Latitude:	35o 15' 00" N

Geographical Boundaries

OLOUS (Ancient city)    East  of  ELOUNDA (Small town)  ELOUNDA (Small town) belongs to AGIOS NIKOLAOS (Municipality (Kapodistrias plan))  AGIOS NIKOLAOS (Municipality (Kapodistrias plan)) belongs toMIRAMBELOU (Province)  MIRAMBELOU (Province) belongs to LASSITHI (Prefecture)  LASSITHI (Prefecture) belongs to CRETE (Island)  CRETE (Island) belongs to GREECE (Country

http://www.gtp.gr/LocPage.asp?id=60633