There can be no doubt that the settlement at Manika comprised an entire town, even though excavations have shown that it was not closely built up, there being a considerable amount of open space. The great prosperity of the settlement will have been due to the fact that it could control the main sea-route of that time, the Euboian channel. In addition it transported and worked obsidian and especially metals to which it owed its remarkable development. J. Davis has characterized the site as one of the largest settlements of the Bronze Age in Greece. Indeed no settlement of greater extent of this time has yet been found. Nor can there be any doubt that the town itself was built in accordance with a fairly regular plan; even at points well removed from the centre the houses follow a N-S or E-W orientation. This orientation appears to have been determined by the two natural axes, the shore-line and the parallel ancient road which had a N-S direction.

A ten-year period of work at Manika was completed some time ago. Yet only a small part of the settlement has been excavated. Most of the site (around 600 stremmata) has been covered over by buildings, which have prevented further excavation. The greater part of the cemetery, estimated to have had more than 5000 graves, is likely to have been destroyed in the course of uncontrolled building. Only a few hundred graves have been excavated and of these only a small number can be visited.