[3] The town lies on the western edge of the Minoa Pediada plain, west of the Lasithi plateau, in central Crete.

The ephor Iosif Hatzidakis, the first explorer of the central cave chamber of three, discovered masses of bronze votive weapons and a silver labrys (double axe).

[6] Prof. Spyridon Marinatos immediately took charge of the site[7] and discovered the side chambers, which had been blocked with debris from the collapse of the cave's natural roof.

There were found, undisturbed, hundreds of bronze axes—twenty-five gold ones and seven silver ones—a hoard of bronze long swords, the longest (to 1.055 m) discovered in Europe,[8] and daggers and gold simulacra of weapons, cast "bun" ingots of copper alloy, a small altar, and pottery sherds that enabled the deposits to be given a date range of continuous occupation[9] from the late third millennium BCE to Late Minoan II (ca.

The warlike implements, both actual weapons and their votive simulacra, are in strong contrast to the entirely peaceable finds at other Minoan cave sites.