Phaistos was located by Thomas Abel Brimage Spratt, commander of the "Spitfire", a paddle steamer, in the Mediterranean Survey of 1853, which described the topography, settlements and monuments of Crete. Spratt followed the directions of Strabo, who said:Of the three cities that were united under one metropolis by Minos, the third, which was Phaestus, was razed to the ground by the Gortynians; it is sixty stadia distant from Gortyn, twenty from the sea, and forty from the seaport Matalum; and the country is held by those who razed it.