Mirabello Bay (also ''Bay/Gulf of Mirabello/Mirabella'') is an embayment of the

Sea of Crete 300px, Map of the Sea of Crete The Sea of Crete (, ''Kritiko Pelagos''), or Cretan Sea, is a sea, part of the Aegean Sea, located in its southern extremity, with a total surface area of . The sea stretches to the north of the island of Crete, eas ...

on the eastern part of

Crete Crete ( el, Κρήτη, translit=, Modern: , Ancient: ) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the 88th largest island in the world and the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, Sardinia, Cypru ...

in present-day

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders wit ...

. It is the largest bay of the

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

islands and the fifth largest in the

Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the ...

. The

tourist Tourism is travel for pleasure or business; also the theory and practice of touring, the business of attracting, accommodating, and entertaining tourists, and the business of operating tours. The World Tourism Organization defines tourism ...

town Agios Nikolaos overlooks the

bay A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a Gulf (geography), gulf, sea, sound (geography), sound, or bight (geogra ...

. This locale was important in prehistoric settlement of the island of Crete.

In ancient times

The coast of the Bay of Mirabello was noted for its role in

copper Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkish ...

metallurgy Metallurgy is a domain of materials science and engineering that studies the physical and chemical behavior of metallic elements, their inter-metallic compounds, and their mixtures, which are known as alloys. Metallurgy encompasses both the sci ...

development in the period circa 3000 BC. In the Late Minoan period, cities on high ground overlooking the Bay of Mirabello were founded as

cities of refuge The cities of refuge ( ''‘ārê ha-miqlāṭ'') were six Levitical towns in the Kingdom of Israel and the Kingdom of Judah in which the perpetrators of accidental manslaughter could claim the right of asylum. Maimonides, invoking talmudic l ...

, including Karphi. Later in the Dorian Invasion, settlement occurred of other hilltop cities overlooking the Bay of Mirabello; an example of this phase of settlement was the city of

Lato Lato ( grc, Λατώ, Latṓ) was an ancient city of Crete, the ruins of which are located approximately 3 km from the village of Kritsa. History The Dorian city-state was built in a defensible position overlooking Mirabello Bay betw ...

.C. M. Hogan, 2008 Kreta Mirabello Psira

Line notes

References

* Philip P. Betancourt (2007) ''The Chrysokamino Metallurgy Workshop and Its Territory'', ASCSA, 462 pages * Robert Drews (1993) ''The End of the Bronze Age: Changes in Warfare and the Catastrophe Ca. 1200 B.C.'', Princeton University Press, 252 pages * C.Michael Hogan, ''Lato Fieldnotes'', The Modern Antiquarian, January 10, 200

{{Coord, 35.1747, N, 25.7858, E, source:kolossus-cawiki, display=title Bays of Greece Gulfs of the Mediterranean Landforms of Lasithi