The village of  Agioi Deka is located on the ruins of ancient Gortys, at the north side of the fertile valley of Messara,  on an all green hill overlooking the valley with the olive plantations. The village owes its name to the ten Cretan Christians who martyred here, during the pogroms by the emperor Dekius in 250 AD. The stone, before which they knelt when their persecutors took their head, is kept in a showcase in the Byzantine church of Agioi Deka.

Many of owners in the village have built their picturesque houses using a structural material taken from the ruins of the ancient city of Gortys. The cemetery of Gortys is estimated to have been there. The ancient findings of the area are housed in the small Museum of Gortys.