Lentas

A coastal settlement on the south coast of Crete, inhabited since the Neolithic and Early Minoan period (3rd millennium BC). Lentas served as one of the two harbours of Gortyn, Crete's most prominent city after the fall of Knossos. In the 4th century BC, the Gortynians established a sanctuary of Asclepius here, which became a healing centre where wealthy Romans from North Africa received treatment using mineral water from a nearby spring. An earthquake in 46 BC destroyed the city but it was rebuilt. Italian Archaeological School excavations in 1900, 1910, and 1912-13 uncovered the sanctuary remains including an altar, marble columns, and a Roman mosaic of a hippocampus.