May 11, 2025

May 11, 2025

We are up early and in a taxi to visit Knossos Palace, the main draw of Heraklion, Crete, when it opens. We intend to beat the cruise ship that is in town. As soon as we arrived, we knew we failed. They beat us. There are several big buses with a swarm of tourists. And I thought cruisers were late risers! Our taxi driver kindly pushes through the crowd to get us to the correct ticket counter. It wasn’t necessary as we had to wait until the crowd winds its way through the narrow entrance path. Several noisy peacocks greet us as we enter.

Knossos was the capital of the first great civilization in Europe from almost 4000 years ago. They were highly advanced but very mysterious. We don’t even know their name. Historians call them Minoans after the legendary King Minos and his beast the Minotaur kept in a labyrinth here. The Minoans became fabulously wealthy dominating trade in the Eastern Mediterranean. They must have learned to build ships, navigate and map the seas, and make money as merchants for the kingdoms lining the sea.

As we make our way to the ruins entrance, I can tell this was a wealthy city, since it was built of cut stone instead of rubble, or mud brick. Unlike almost every other city it had no protective wall. The Minoans were comfortable on the island of Crete knowing the surrounding kingdoms weren’t (yet) skilled enough to reach them.

Knossos was one of the first prehistoric civilizations discovered. After excavation the archeologist decided to reconstruct the city. This is now against modern practice, but it makes this site unique and a big tourist draw. Throughout our visit, we see lots of colorful columns and painted wall frescoes. Unfortunately the reconstructions were poor and are now deteriorating forcing the authorities to close access to interior spaces. I wish we would have visited a decade ago.

The city is built around a central courtyard. The surrounding buildings were multi-story with balconies. Based on frescoes, historians think citizens watched a bull-leaping sport from these heights.

The west side of the city is dominated by storage. The many rooms are filled with giant clay jars with many handles. They would have been filled with things like wine and olive oil. Control of foodstuffs was a major way for elites to control the citizens of a city. If you complained, or did not work, no food for you.

One clear example that Knossos was wealthy and highly developed was the urban water system. Knossos used clay pipes for water distribution and stone drainage channels for the sewer. This wouldn’t be common again until Roman times 2000 years later.

Surprisingly after wandering for an hour the crowds were suddenly gone. Who knew an hour later would have been the right time slot. After a couple hours we taxied back to Heraklion. After a little down time, we walked along the old Venetian port with its breakwater fort to eat an early lunch. For dessert we ordered Mosaiko, slices of a dappled chocolate and cookie/biscuit mixture. Aimee told me the name is Greek for ‘mosaic’ which is exactly how it looks.

After lunch we walked down the street to visit the Heraklion Archeological Museum. It has the artifacts discovered at Knossos and other Minoan cities of Crete. It is stunning, because of the richness of Minoan culture. No endless stash of broken brown pottery here. Wealthy Minoans had the money to buy (or skill to make) highly decorated vessels of all shapes and sizes. Aimee said the teacups could easily substitute for modern ones.

I liked seeing the paraphernalia of ordinary Minoan life. A couple simple musical instruments, a game board, and nice jewelry. Not surprisingly for the home of the Minotaur, the bull seems to be an honored animal. Symbolic bull horns decorate many architectural elements. We even see several ceremonial drinking vessels in the shape of a bull’s head.

Since the Minoans were a trading empire, we see items of commerce like ivory tusks and copper ingots. These standard size ingots would be alloyed with tin to make highly coveted bronze. There were also hundreds of seals, probably used to register ownership, secure cargoes and certify transactions. Cutely they are all very unique and personalized.

A trader has to record transactions and monitor inventory. They needed a writing system. The Minoan script is known as Linear A. Sadly we know neither the language they spoke or how to decipher their writing system. A famous example is a disk found at the archeological site of Phaistos.

Archaeologists have found tombs of the Minoans. They buried their dead within large clay sarcophagi along with their grave goods.

After more than an hour on the ground floor, I had to give Aimee and my sister a rest. We had fruit smoothies on the veranda of the museum cafe. On the second floor we finally got to the part I was waiting for, the fresco paintings discovered on the upper floors of Knossos. The photos I have seen are stunning. After the first glance, I wish I hadn’t seen the real things. The actual frescoes are just fragments, sometimes laughingly incomplete. Archeologists had to really use their imagination to draw in the bulk of the paintings. In one famous case of a blue monkey, restorers originally thought it was a strange blue boy until another fresco was discovered with the blue monkey’s mouth. In reality I guess I should be awed that any remnants of these fantastic delicate paintings have survived after 4000 years.

The frescoes of Knossos are unique in that they display not gods or kings but ordinary scenes. Like Egypt, men are red, while the women are white. In particular the women are wearing long colorful flounced skirts with bare chests. Both men and women have long curly black hair.

After spending the whole afternoon working at the museum, we walked back to the hotel and had a glass of wine on the fifth-floor rooftop bar. The weather is delightful. The cruise ship is now gone, leaving two ferries. We watch the high-speed ferry returning from Santorini.

For dinner we walked into the city center eating at a Farm to Table restaurant. It had a very unique and fun menu. We randomly picked a few starters to share. So far on Crete, after every meal, we have received a complimentary small dessert served with a shot of Raki, a nasty tasting liquor fermented from grape skins. This time the digestif was sweetened and the dessert was Halva. It looked like apple sauce but was actually some kind of Semolina mixture.

On our walk home we noticed a crowd at the Greek Orthodox Cathedral of St Titus.  There were a dozen priests and a military honor guard. I learn they are celebrating the return of the relic, the Skull of St Titus, first Bishop of Crete. to the sanctuary. Unbeknownst to me the Book of Titus in the bible relates St Paul’s visit to Crete. Interestingly Orthodox priests have long beards, can be married, and are paid civil servants of Greece. This church also looks odd because it was built as a mosque under Ottoman rule.