Island Hopping 2024: Crete, Phaistos, Matala Beach

We headed out this morning to visit the amazing Archaeological Site of Phaistos.  Unlike other sites we have visited, Phaistos is just about all Minoan.  Approaching this ancient city, with the palace perched atop its highest point we were struck by the sense of mystery and intrigue that surround this ancient people.  They had a system of linear writing that we have yet to decipher. They had engineering and architectural skills that were at least equal to the later Greeks and Romans and they had the prosperity to allow for a certain amount of indulgences.  This all at a time when the Romans were still just a bunch of shepherds owing their allegiance to the Etruscan Kings and the Greeks were still at least 1,500 years away from building the Parthenon.  This was truly one of the important gateways to Western Civilization.  

As we wandered through the labyrinth of ruins we could not help but feel a connection to these people that in a very real sense started the path that made us, Sandy and me, what we are.  We left Phaistos grateful that we had a day to observe these ancient ruins and think about the people that built the palaces and those who lived in them and what they may have done during their days on this hilltop.

The view the Minoans had from their hilltop

Elegant Stairs throughout the palaces

Beneath the main level storage for food and other supplies

Huge intact vases are striking artifacts here 

Vases were used for storage and import

The marking on the vases are both decoration and an accounting system.

  It tells what is in it, how it should be stored and who owns it.

One of the courtyards of the palace, it may have had a roof supported by columns, but it was still open air

The Queen's room.  Even today it looks elegant

                                                    The royal causeway across the courtyard

Next we drove down to Matala Beach.  A beautiful white sand beach flanked by two imposing sandstone cliffs.  One of the cliffs is pockmarked with dozens of manmade caves.  The caves were dug by prehistoric man and were used as shelter.  Later the Romans, then the Byzantines used them for burial sites.  But it was in the 1960’s and 70’s that these caves made their most recent history.  Hippies found them and started moving in.  So here on the Southern coast of Crete the counterculture dug in and for several decades held their ground.  Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell and Jimmy Hendrix all came to Matala Beach to entertain and to just hang out.  The caves have been cleared out now.  But the little town of Matala still has a very 70’s vibe to it.  Sandy felt very at home here, but I’m pretty sure she wasn’t ready to move into an abandoned Roman Crypt.

The beach at Matala

Shelter for stone age man

Crypts for the Romans

Housing for the hippies

I knew the 70's, this looks like the 70's

A beach restaurant

This is the way the GPS brought us home from Matala Beach.  I told Sandy that no one would build a road that went straight into the Sea.  She did not take my word for it.  That said, this picture shows one more time what a good sport she is.