These indications agree well with the situation of the ruins discovered by Robert Pashley on Kastri hill between the existing villages Temenia and Papadiana.
[5] It has characteristics of other Archaic Period hilltop forts such as Lato, where the founding was based upon achieving a site of safety or refuge.
[6] The city was autonomous; it issued its own coins, one displaying the images of a Cretan wild goat and a bee named Tarra.
Elyrus, Lissus, Tarrha, and Hyrtacina had an established monetary union when they joined the Cretan League in the 3rd century BCE.
In the 19th century, Pashley remarked that numerous vestiges of polygonal masonry on the north and west sides, and measuring little more than half a mile (0.8 km) in length, are still existing.