The Mesara or Messara Plain (πεδιάδα της Μεσ(σ)αράς) is an illuvial plain in southern Crete

Crete

Crete is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, and one of the thirteen administrative regions of Greece. It forms a significant part of the economy and cultural heritage of Greece while retaining its own local cultural traits...

, stretching about 50 km west-to-east and 7 km north-to-south, making it the largest plain in Crete.

On a hill at its west end are the ruins of Minoan

Minoan civilization

The Minoan civilization was a Bronze Age civilization that arose on the island of Crete and flourished from approximately the 27th century BC to the 15th century BC. It was rediscovered at the beginning of the 20th century through the work of the British archaeologist Arthur Evans...

 Phaistos

Phaistos

Phaistos , also transliterated as Phaestos, Festos and Phaestus is an ancient city on the island of Crete. Phaistos was located in the south-central portion of the island, about 5.6 kilometres from the Mediterranean Sea. It was inhabited from about 4000 BC. A palace, dating from the Middle Bronze...

; near the middle are the ruins of the ancient city of Gortys.

Since 1500 BC the plain has grown up to 6 km due to a build up of illuvial sediment

Sediment

Sediment is naturally occurring material that is broken down by processes of weathering and erosion, and is subsequently transported by the action of fluids such as wind, water, or ice, and/or by the force of gravity acting on the particle itself....

. Clays from the Mesara have been found to be the source of significant amounts of Cretan

Crete

Crete is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, and one of the thirteen administrative regions of Greece. It forms a significant part of the economy and cultural heritage of Greece while retaining its own local cultural traits...

 Minoan pottery

Minoan pottery

Minoan pottery is more than a useful tool for dating the mute Minoan civilization. Its restless sequence of rapidly maturing artistic styles reveal something of Minoan patrons' pleasure in novelty while they assist archaeologists to assign relative dates to the strata of their sites...

; soil and rock types from the fringes of the Mesara, particularly the foothills

Foothills

Foothills are geographically defined as gradual increases in elevation at the base of a mountain range. They are a transition zone between plains and low relief hills to the adjacent topographically high mountains.-Examples:...

 of the Asterousia Mountains

Asterousia Mountains

The Asterousia Mountains are a range in southern Crete separating the Mesara Plain from the Libyan Sea. Evidence of ancient Cretan cultures have been found in excavations performed within sites contained in this range; moreover, one of the most significant Minoan sites on Crete has been excavated...

 at the south and the foothills to the north within the Psiloritis Mountains

Psiloritis Mountains

The Psiloritis Mountains is a landform in southern Crete, an island of Greece. These mountains are alternatively termed the Psiloriti Range. Mount Ida is a prominent peak within the Psiloriti Range. The ancient Minoan palace of Phaistos is aligned toward a prominent saddle area of the Psiloriti...

.

Literature

• Livingstone Vance Watrous, Plain of Phaistos: Cycles of Social Complexity in the Mesara Region of Crete, Cotsen Institute of Archaeology at UCLA (2006), ISBN 1-931745-14-5.