Besides this well developed tourist resort with long sandy beaches, the area has some traditional villages and archaeological sites and Eileithyia caves.

Here, there are many accommodations (such as large hotels, boarding houses, and self-catering apartments) along with many restaurants, bars, nightclubs, and shops.

Villages in the area include: Amnísos lies about 7 km East of Heraklion city, just beside the airport and in front of the islet of Dia.

It is geographically located on the north-western part of the former American Base of Gournes, where together with the premises of the research institutions of HCMR forms THALASSOKOSMOS - the largest centre for marine science and promotion of the Mediterranean Sea world.

[citation needed] The summer resort of Kokkíni Háni lies in Vathiano Kambo, about 13 km East of Heraklion and Northwest of Goúves.

meters large and had all the typical features of the Minoan architecture: two paved courts, connecting corridors, storage rooms, light wells, shrines, etc.

About 40 tripods and huge double axes were found in some rooms, suggesting that the owner of the villa might have been a high priest.

This monastery (Agios Ioannis Theologos in Greek) lies in a verdant setting southeast of the village of Anópoli.

On the north, there are three tombs, which belong to Archimandrite Gregory Aspetakis, Archimadrite Timotheos Papadakis and the monk Ioakeim Avgerinakis.

The first archaeological researches on the site were done by Arthur Evans, the well-known British archaeologist who unearthed and partially restored Knossos in the early 20th century.

[citation needed] They found a number of bronze and ceramic votive offerings, the oldest of them dating from the earliest Minoan periods, suggesting the cave was an important sacred shrine dedicated to a female fertility deity, possibly Britomartis.