Azoria, Archaeological site on a hill near Kavousi, Crete.

Azoria is an archaeological site on a double-peaked hill about 1 km southeast of Kavousi and 3 km from the sea, at roughly 365 m above sea level. Its most visible remains are Archaic houses and communal buildings of 600–500 BC, including the Communal Dining Building and the Monumental Civic Building with its stepped bench and adjoining shrine.

Harriet Boyd dug a single trench on the south peak in 1900, finding circular structures over a large rectangular building. Excavation resumed in 2002 as the Azoria Project, tracing settlement from the Bronze Age through the Early Iron Age. Around 600 BC the earlier remains were ritually destroyed and buried, and a planned city was built on terraces; fire ended it in the early 5th century BC, with only a tower reoccupied around 200 BC.

The Communal Dining Building has four banquet halls of just under 30 m² each, with storerooms and kitchens, and is interpreted as a possible andreion where male citizens held syssitia, the communal mess of hetairiai. Bronze weapons found there had apparently hung on the walls. The adjoining hall of about 200 m², with benches along its walls, may have held around 200 people.

The hill is accessible by several paths and offers multiple excavation levels to explore, with building and workshop remains clearly visible. The terrain can be uneven and rocky, so sturdy footwear and time for careful walking through the site are advisable.

The olive press in the Service Building of the Monumental Civic Building is the earliest documented lever-and-weights (beam) press in the post-Bronze Age Aegean. It lay beside storerooms holding food in decorated pithoi and kitchens with large stone-lined hearths.