The excavations conducted on this tiny island in the 70s and 80s revealed a roman era city, with a theater an aqueduct and a double port. The city should have been both a center of the production of the porfyra, as well as a resort for the merchants, who, on their way between the trading centers of the roman world, used to take a pleasant break in the roman baths and the theater here.
The city was destroyed violently in about 400 C.E., by invaders, probably fanatic cristians who set the city on fire, and broke its statues and ornaments into pieces. An earthquake, a little before or after the invasion must have contributed to the city's destruction.
In recent times (around the 15th to the 17th centuries), Koufonnissi was reinhabited by hermites, who lived in caves at the island's cliffs to the west. The island was then called Cristianna, probably owing its name to the hermits. Today one man lives here self-exiled all year round.
You can visit Koufonissi during the summer. The boat departures in the morning from Makrygialos, on Crete's south coast, and returns in the evening. During the day you can enjoy the island's golden beaches and crystal seas, and hike to the island's south end. There on the isle's highest point, lay the fragments of an ancient larger than life-size statue of a roman emperor or god. On the largest fragment of the statue there are inscribed the names of three travellers of the 17th century and the date 1630. According to the descriptions of the travellers of the past centuries, the statue was standing on a 20-step-pyramid-base, of which the foundations can be seen today. The base was demolished in the mid '20s, and its stones were used for the construction of the nearby light-house. This light-house was bombed during the Seconnd World War. The modern light-house stands on the nearby hill.