In the wider region, the post-Minoan era is sealed by the presence of some of the towns of Homer's "Cretan Ekatompolis" (Lykastos, Diatonion, Heraclea, Kairatos, Kytta or Kyttaion, Rafkos, Rizinia, Tritta, etc.). The following Roman centuries – devoid of attention or utterly unexplored – are silently awaiting on a more consistent historical, scientific and archaeological research.
The Byzantine presence is very strong, attested by fortresses, monasteries, old churches and architectural remains. The Byzantine conflicts with the Arabs, vast and frightening if you perceive the time it went on, marked their end in this region with the expulsion of the Saracens and the return of Crete in Byzantine territory (Karteros, Nikiforos Fokas, Temenos Fortress aka Kanli Kastelli).
Following, comes the Venetian era, strongly distinguished even today in villages and settlements with its architecture, its impressive construction projects, the remains of castles and their warehouses, its water projects – water pipes and aqueducts – and its artistic symbols on the mansions’ door.
In the centuries of the Ottoman domination of "Parakandia" (as the region was called), the area was always the easiest victim for displays of conquering brutality by the urban mob (e.g. the massacres of 1897). Thus, great captains and the so called rebel “Chainides”, a handful of men and brave warriors, adorn the pages of the region and the island’s history. (Dimitrios Logios, Mastrachas, Korakas, etc.).
Until recently, in every difficult period of Cretan history, the inhabitants of the Municipality of Heraklion responded to every call of the motherland. It was here that the last heroic act in the great battle with German paratroopers was played, it was here that the organization of national resistance against the Axis begun.
From the villages of 'Parakandia", as the region is called, originated great resistance figures (e.g. the families of Mpandouvas, Samaritis, etc.) in the last war for freedom, the WWII.