The settlement was made basically on a floor and beach fringing the northeast side of the mountainous Desfina Peninsula.

Considering that the archaeology from that specific location dates only from the Geometric period, Pausanias' belief about the earlier antiquity of the site is suspect.

Be that as it may, Antikyra has had a long and continuous history since then, not even being abandoned after total destruction and transportation of all its population, whereas Medeon across the gulf did not even get through the Hellenistic Period.

Besides export and import, Antikyra's Its main product has been black and white hellebore, which grow naturally in the area.

It became known as Antikirrha or Anticirrha (Ἀντίκιρρα)[2][3] from its position on the opposite side of a peninsula from Cirrha, Delphi's port on the Gulf of Corinth.

Under the Ottomans, it became known as Aspra Spitia (Greek: Άσπρα Σπίτια) for its white houses[5] but its former name was restored in the early 20th century.

The Antikyra unit includes the Kephali Peninsula to the south and a strip of the southwest coast of the gulf.

To the north the unit does not infringe on the traditional Paralia Distomou ("Distomo Beach"), but it does include a large portion of mountainous terrain to the west of the Distomo-Antikyra Road and the valley it follows.

The traditional village of Antikyra is located only on the NW coastal shelf of the gulf, not including the Kephali Peninsula or any of the mountainous terrain.

There is a deep-water harbor on the southern angle of the Kephali Peninsula, and deep water across the gulf under the site of Medeon, near which modern docks have been constructed.

Until the construction of the aluminum factory, modern roads and tunnels through Boeotia had diminished the value the ancient Gulf of Antkyra had as a port.

[7] In antiquity, it was associated with the still-older settlement of Kyparissos which was noted as the primary port of Mycenaean Phocis in Homer's Iliad.

The name literally means "cypress" but was glossed as deriving from the town's mythical founder Cyparissus, son of Orchomenus and brother of Minyas.

[7] Both grew nearby and were regarded by Greek medicine as cures for forms of insanity, melancholy, gout, and epilepsy.

[17][18] It recovered enough to quickly begin construction of a temple to Artemis with a cult statue commissioned to Praxiteles by 330 BC.

[20] During the 2nd century BC, Antikyra struck autonomous bronze coins with the head of Poseidon on the obverse and Artemis bearing a torch and an arch on the reverse.

During the 14th century, the city was named Port de Arago while its fortress was held by the Catalans, probably under the aegis of the county of Salona (mod.

Aspra Spitia's connection with the ancient Antikyra was established by William Martin Leake in 1806 when he found an inscription mentioning its name.

During this period, an archaic temple of Athena was discovered, along with its severe style bronze idol, a large part of the 4th-century BC ashlar fortification with 2 rectangular towers, and an early Christian bath with a hypocaust.