The absence of a safe port for the capital of Crete resulted for the protected southern coves of Dhia islet, 6 miles northward from Herakleion to operate as such.
Four shipwreck sites were located during 1976 underwater exploration and four more were also found in 2011 during another survey of the Ephorate of Underwater Antiquities. In 1976 an underwater excavation was conducted by the pioneer Cretan archaeologist Charalabos Kritzas at the cove of St. Georgios.
The cove of St. Georgios operated as the main anchorage of the islet as it is indicated by a submerged mole dated probably in the 10th c. AD. A large number of isolated finds from the ships that found refuge there were recovered. Moreover the excavation reached Minoan pottery shards at the lower strata that attest the use of the anchorage from Prehistoric times.
| 3. Crete and the sea | |
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| 3.1 The harbour of Herakleion | |
| 3.2 The Venetian Harbour | |
| 3.3 The underwater research of 1976 (Cousteau - MCE) | |
| 3.4 Roman shipwreck with Rhodian amphorae | |
| 3.5 Byzantine amphorae shipwreck | |
| 3.6 Venetian shipwreck with ballast of architectural elements |