Knossos and Archeological Museum

Today was all about the Minoan civilization. We started the day by driving 15 min to Knossos - the ancient capital of the Minoan civilization around 3000 - 1500 BC. There was an enormous palace in Knossos, which has extensive fairly well preserved ruins. These ruins were discovered in the 19th century by the British archeologist Arthur Evans. Sir Evans dedicated many years of his life to preserving and restoring the Knossos palace. The result is impressive but quite controversial. Sir Evans led rebuilding of some parts of the palace to what he believed was the original state, including colors and frescoes. Given that he used modern materials such as cement, it’s clear that it’s just a replica, and we are not even sure what exactly the palace structures looked like, so a lot was the work of the Sir Evans imagination. I think we were a bit disappointed by the reconstruction, but still incredibly impressed by the sheer scale of the palace ruins. After the palace, we drove back to Heraklion and went to the Archeological Museum where most of the numerous findings form the Knossos ruins and from the other archaeological sites around Crete. We saw such masterpieces of the ancient civilization as the famous golden bees pendant form Malia, or the snake women from Knossos. The craftsmanship of the gorgeous pottery, or the miniature seals were astonishing. Hard to believe that they were created more than 4 millenniums ago. After the museum, we went back to the Peskeki restaurant and this time we had incredibly soft and delicious goat main dish.Read more