Island Hopping 2024: Crete, Repositioning to Heraklion, Ancient Knossos

For one last time we drove across the island.  Today we are repositioning ourselves to a Heraklion Hotel making it easier to catch tomorrow’s early morning flight.  The mountainous landscape with the measureless millions of olive trees and grapevines still mesmerizing us as they did when first we saw them. 

Goodbye to Kalamaki Beach

Picturesque hilltop towns

Mountains on the way to Heraklion

Olive groves and vineyards, we'll miss these the most

Just outside of Heraklion is Ancient Knossos.  This site is different from the others that we have visited in Crete and Cyprus in that parts of it have been famously reconstructed, by the amateur English archaeologist and excavator Sir Arthur Evans, who added features and embellishments based on his own interpretations of the site.  This was not done in his minds eye alone as there were frescoes all around Crete that showed the way the Minoan buildings had looked. It was also he, who gave the name to the Minoan Civilization based on the legendary and Grecco-mythic King Minos.  This was unfortunate because these “Minoans” were not Greek.  The original Cretans migrated from the Levant area of the Mideast and were later joined by a new wave of immigration from the Euphrates/Tigris region of Persia.  They had their own culture influenced by, but noticeably different from the Greeks.  The peak of their civilization also predated the peak of the Greek civilization by almost a millennium.  

All this controversy aside, I for one am glad Sir Arthur did it his way.  After observing so many ruins throughout Crete that were only foundations without superstructures, seeing how some of these buildings could have looked helped to put some of the other archeological sites in perspective.

The double axe, an important Minoan symbol

The Minoans were not known to have theatre.  These stairs, taken in Pano, may have been seating for religious ceremonies.

The color for the pillars, taken from found fragments and fresco representation

Bulls are a big deal in the Minos myth.  The Minoans seemed to honor them also.

Some vases were taller than me

A replication fresco, the original is in the Heraklion museum.  The Minoans were known to have contact with the Egyptians who were building their pyramids about this time

Some of the unreconstructed findings

A reconstructed building, perhaps a religious gathering place

Based on some clay tablets found here,  Evans assumed they were for bookkeeping and called this area the treasury

How one of the courtyards would have looked

Evans' work here, started in 1900 and lasting four decades, significantly advanced our understanding of Minoan civilization. His methods and interpretations continue to be debated and reevaluated by scholars in the field of archaeology. 

Sir Arthur Evans, amateur archaeologist.  Thank you Sir Arthur