Xopetres

Intensive archaiological survey has shown that the Tholos warehouse probably served as a granary of horreum from which Rome received shipments of its grain supplies. The port of Tholos has had a long history of occupation and use as a commercial harbor and transshipment point, from the Middle Bronze age (ca. 2000 BC) untill the Roman period (1st c. BC-6th c. AD). Especially during the 1st and 2nd c. AD, Tholos held a prominent position in wider intra-Mediterranean trade. The warehouse, elaborate in architecture and imposing in size, measures 55.70m long (N-S) and 9.60m wide (E-W). Of brick and concrete construction, it had a vaulted roof, plaster floor, and ten substantial buttresses on the east side. The port of tholos and this warehouse served as a transshipment point for boats carrying grain between Alexandria Egypt and Rome. Grain and other products, some stored in amphorae, would be unloaded in Tholos, stored for a time in the warehouse, and then shipped by carts across the isthmus of Ierapetra to cargo vessels waiting in the harbors of Hierapytna.