Aptera (Ἄπτερα or Ἀπτερία;[2] more anciently, Ἄptaϝra[3]) also called Apteron[4] was an ancient city, now an archaeological site in western Crete, a kilometre inland from the southern shore of Souda Bay, about 13 km east of Chania in the municipality of Akrotiri. It is mentioned (A-pa-ta-wa) in Linear B tablets from the 14th-13th centuries BC. With its highly fortunate geographical situation, the city-state was powerful from Minoan through Hellenistic times, when it gradually declined.