A Trip To Knossos.....

You may or may not remember, last November we had a visit from both my daughter Bethan and my son, Gareth.

After Bethan had returned to Saudi, Geoff, Gareth and I had a trip to Knossos on the outskirts of Iraklion.

Knossos is one of the archeoligical wonders of the world as, until the start of the last century, it was thought to have existed only in mythology but the Homeric tales of King Minos, his wife Pasiphae, the Labyrinth and the Minotaur all came to life as Arthur Evans, in the early 1900's slowly uncovered this massive site.

There was habitation there for over 8 thousand years. The first palace, built 4 thousand years ago, was destroyed and then rebuilt on an even grander scale.At the height of this second period,the palace consisted of more than a thousand rooms on 5 floors. A whole town existed around it and it controlled an empire covering the whole Mediterranean linking the continents of Asia, Africa and Europe.

The Minoans were the first great civilisation of the Mediterranean Basin, they were extremely artistic and peaceable prefering to cooperate and trade rather than use military might. They traded near and far using the produce of Crete- olive oil, wine, timber, grain and imported gold, silver and gems which were used to create the wonderful artefacts that have been unearthed.

To put it in perspective, Tutankhamun, ruled Egypt, as this great palace was in decline.

Below, are some small examples of the frescoes found during excavation. The originals are to be seen in Iraklion Archeological Museum.
Contention has always dogged this site regarding Arthur Evans's reconstruction of parts of this palace. (see below)

The detractors claim that nobody knows what the palace originally looked like and of course, this sort of reconstruction would not be permitted nowadays.

In Arthur Evans's defence,many of the walls were timber-framed and as excavation proceeded these walls collapsed due to the rotten wood, therefore if nothing had been done, there would be even less to look at today. He claimed he was 'preserving' rather than rebuilding.


The above photo is a reconstructed area, if it had not been rebuilt we would never have any idea of what may have been there. Personally, I don't mind it!!
We were very lucky to be able to go out of season and the site was nearly empty of tourists but I can imagine at the height of summer it might be rather different with thousands of people there every day.

It has a lovely open air cafe and a good museum shop.

I also noticed some shady picnic areas which would be much-needed in the summer.