The acropolis has many remains, including a temple dedicated to goddess Dictynna, fortification towers, cisterns, wells, and watchtowers that could have been used to guard sea routes.

The seaside has long sandy beaches and crystal clear waters that are popular both with residents of the province of Chania and visitors from Greece and abroad.

A city-state with its own laws and minting its own coins, Falasarna provided military advisers and thousands of mercenaries for a war under the Macedonian king Perseus against the Romans (Livy).

[17] In 69-67 BC the Romans sent forces to eliminate piracy from the eastern Mediterranean, stormed Phalasarna, blocked its harbor with massive masonry, and destroyed the whole city, probably killing its citizens.

A probable event was the great earthquake and tsunami of 21 July A.D. 365, which wreaked catastrophic damage on all the coasts of the eastern Mediterranean and was recorded by Ammianus Marcellinus[21] and others.

An ancient fish basin with two flights of steps carved into the coastal rocks near the harbor entrance has been cracked in half, probably during the same earthquake.

[22] Rescue excavations at the cemetery of Falasarna began in 1966 directed by the Ephor of the Department of Classical Antiquities in Chania, Dr. Yannis Tzedakis,[23] and continued under Vanna Niniou-Kindeli.

A merchant's house has partly been excavated at the foot of the acropolis, revealing imported goods of the early Hellenistic period from around the Mediterranean, particularly from Cyrenaica in North Africa.

[27] The excavations have uncovered a wide variety of ceramic vessels, coins, jewelry, and sculpture, revealing well developed culture of the inhabitants of ancient Phalasarna.

Between 2010 and 2015, Gunnar Liestøl of the University of Oslo in collaboration with Elpida Hadjidaki developed a quasi-mixed reality simulation of ancient Falasarna.

[28] [29] [30] At the point where the ancient channel entrance to the Hellenistic port meets the sea, there is a wreck from the Second World War of a Mark 1 Landing Craft, Tank.

The history of this vessel, partly based on interviews of local residents of Falasarna and the Captain, John Sutton, has been described by Michael Bendon.

[31] A preview of a situated simulation depicting the sinking of this Landing Craft has been prepared by Gunnar Liestøl, Michael Bendon, and the Director of Falasarna excavations Elpida Hadjidaki.