It was a colony from Epidaurus in Argolis, and is said to have been built in consequence of an intimation from Asclepius, when an Epidaurian ship touched here on its way to Cos.[1] Its foundation probably belongs to the time when the whole of the eastern coast of Laconia, as far as the promontory Malea, acknowledged the supremacy of Argos.
[2] The epithet Limera was considered by the best ancient critics to be given to the town on account of the excellence of its harbours, though other explanations were proposed of the word.
[5][6] William Martin Leake, who visited in the 19th century wrote that the walls, both of the acropolis and town, were traceable all round; and in some places, particularly towards the sea, they remained to more than half their original height.
The towers were some of the smallest he had ever seen in Hellenic fortresses; the faces ten feet (3 m), the flanks twelve (4 m): the whole circumference of the place was less than three quarters of a mile (1.2 km).
In the middle ages the inhabitants of Epidaurus abandoned their ancient town, and built a new one on Minoa – which they now, for greater security, probably, converted for the first time into an island.
Leake remarked, about a third of a mile (0.5 km) southward of the ruins of Epidaurus, near the sea, a deep pool of fresh water, surrounded with reeds, about 100 yards (90 m) long and 30 broad, which he observes is probably the "lake of Ino, small and deep," mentioned by Pausanias as 2 stadia from the altars of Asclepius, erected to commemorate the spot where the sacred serpent disappeared in the ground, after landing from the Epidaurian ship on its way to Cos.[11] This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Smith, William, ed.