(Knossos, Crete, Greece)

My previous post set out some of the logistics and background of the Palace of Knossos.

I’m still struggling with the approach Arthur Evans took to “restoring” the Palace of Knossos. After all, he made extensive use of concrete, and I’m pretty sure concrete wasn’t really a thing in 1700 BC. As he started in 1900 and finished in 1930 (taking nine years off between 1913 and 1922), there was nothing like UNESCO to weigh in on what might be the best way to preserve the site.

Be that as it may, the Palace of Knossos remains impressive. It likely merits a visit just based on the fact that it is Europe’s oldest city. But just be aware that the complex was *destroyed* about 3400 years ago, and much of what you see has (rightly or wrongly) been shored up or even reconstructed based on what Arthur Evans thought was right at the time.

We ended up staying at Knossos for a few hours. By the end, we were practically the only people there. The joys of visiting during the off-season! Overall, it doesn’t have quite the same “wow” factor (or the same crowds) as the Acropolis. But it is still well worth a visit if you are in Crete, and it is definitely the most impressive sight in the Heraklion area.

For me, the essence of Knossos is standing on the edge of the large central square and appreciating the size and complexity of what was built there so many years ago. It isn’t quite as old as the pyramids of Egypt. But it is also not all that different from structures built thousands of years after Knossos was destroyed. It would have been a giant leap forward at the time.

I found some of the surrounding areas just as evocative. The road leading to the north entrance of the palace has also been restored, but it somehow seems more authentic. No multicoloured mileposts here! It looks to me like a “Roman” road, but of course it is far older than any Roman road.

While people haven’t lived at Knossos for a very long time, it is incorrect to say that it is completely uninhabited. Just like Lokrum Island, off the coast of Dubrovnik, Knossos is home to a number of…peacocks! After the relatively heavy task of historical interpretation, I tried to take the perfect peacock photo.

But these peacocks weren’t born yesterday. They remained elusive, and I ended up with a bunch of blurry, off-centre photos. And then finally, as we were leaving the complex, we walked right up to a peacock and peahen. I was able to take a much better photo, albeit one without the historic palace.

We headed back to town on a city bus, and found the journey a little jarring. The bustle of the city was so different from the quiet historical contemplation we enjoyed at Knossos. But we had a very interesting evening lined up: we were going to visit an award-winning restaurant!

Stay tuned for all the details on our culinary adventure!

(Knossos, Crete, Greece)

We dedicated March 9 to visiting the Palace of Knossos. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site located just outside Heraklion.

We took a city bus to get here. You can save a little bit of money by buying your bus ticket in advance. But the major cost component of a visit to Knossos will be your admission ticket…and, if you decide to go for it, a guide.

At the time of writing, “standard” admission to the Palace of Knossos was 20 Euros. If you are a student, or a senior, you can pay quite a bit less. But your biggest decision will be whether to hire a guide. While the site is very famous, the signage and information is very scarce. If you decide to go it alone, as we did, you will definitely want to have Internet access (e.g. for an audio tour) so that you can get some context for what you are seeing. And if you want to hire a guide, there is no shortage of them waiting at the entrance gates!

Knossos has been described as the oldest city in Europe. It seems to have been the centre of the Minoan civilization. We don’t actually know what the Minoans called themselves: it did not last, and the Minoan name only appeared in the more recent past. It comes from the mythical King Minos, who may have ruled over Knossos at some point.

One thing is for sure: the Palace of Knossos is OLD. The first version was built in 1900 B.C., but was likely destroyed by an earthquake. What remains today was built around 1700 B.C. and was itself destroyed around 1350 B.C. There was a massive fire – possibly caused by an earthquake, or perhaps set intentionally.

The Palace of Knossos was not a residence for the Minoan royalty. Instead, it had a combination of religious and administrative activities. When we were exploring, we came across a number of structures that were used for “storage.”

The age and size of the Palace of Knossos makes it interesting in itself. But we found ourselves just as interested in the story of how it was excavated and restored. For this reason, the name Arthur Evans became part of our vocabulary while we were in Crete. One of the main streets in Heraklion was even called “Evans”!

Evans worked at the site for more than 20 years. He clearly did an incredible amount of work in trying to understand what the palace represented. But his approach, like that at many other archaeological sites in the early 20th century, was quite different from what would be done today. Evans went beyond excavation and in some cases even beyond restoration. Hence, the shockingly colourful and intact pillars in some parts of the palace.

Evans wanted to show what things really looked like during the heyday of Knossos…and so, in some places, he went ahead and did just that. I cannot see this approach being accepted today. But one could argue that this was a better approach than, for example, what happened at the Acropolis: archaeologists simply took things and brought them back to their home country for display in museums. Much of the decorative work on the Parthenon was stripped in this way.

As Evans seemed so confident in what he concluded about the Minoans and their palace, we started linking his name to confident declarations about…just about anything.

Stay tuned for more about Knossos!