Knossos and Iraklio

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04 October 2014

The most well known Minoan palace site is at Knossos just south of Iraklio and we drove there this morning. Knossos was inhabited by the Minoans between 1900 and 1400 BC. It was unearthed in 1900 by the British Archaeologist, Sir Arthur Evans and he spent 35 years and £250,000 of his own money excavating and reconstructing sections of the palace. Although we got there early in an effort to beat the crowds there was already a big French party split into several groups making their way round and we needed to spend a fair amount of our time dodging them, fortunately quite successfully. Knossos was interesting but we preferred our visit a few days ago to the palace of Phaestos. It had a beautiful location, was less crowded and commercial and in our view without the reconstructions and walkways gave a better feel of what life in a Minoan palace would have been like.

From Knossus we took a bus for the short journey into Iraklio in order to see the Archaeological Museum. The museum has just reopened after a six year refurbishment and in light filled galleries imaginatively displays all the important finds we had read about whilst visiting the Minoan sites during our time in Crete. It was one of the most enjoyable and enlightening museum visits we have ever made. We had a fish lunch with many locals enjoying their Saturday out and received the usual friendly hospitality we have come to expect in Cretan restaurants.

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