Crete Travel Guide

The Palace of Knossos stands about 5 km south of Heraklion, Crete, the ceremonial and administrative heart of Minoan civilisation (c. 2000–1400 BC) and the core of one of Europe's oldest cities. The palace complex covers some 20,000 square metres across multiple storeys and wings, with light wells and plumbing, and may have housed 1,000–2,000 people. The labyrinth of Greek myth — home of the bull-headed Minotaur — is widely identified with this sprawling palace; the word labyrinth may link to the labrys double axe, the Minoans' most common sacred emblem. From 1900 the British archaeologist Sir Arthur Evans excavated here for over three decades and partly rebuilt the palace in reinforced concrete: bright fresco copies (the Bull-Leaping and Lily Prince) decorate reconstructed colonnades, the Throne Room's gypsum seat is widely called Europe's oldest throne with griffins painted either side in Evans' restoration, and the magazines still line up giant pithoi jars for oil, wine and grain. Linear B tablets found here are the earliest writing in Greek. The overlap of genuine antiquity and modern reconstruction — and the controversy around it — is what makes Knossos so compelling.

Knossos is the heart of Europe's oldest civilisation — Minoan — the model for the labyrinth of the Minotaur, excavated and partly rebuilt by Arthur Evans in the early 20th century. Red columns, frescoes and multi-storey complexes revive a palace of 2000 BC; the 'Prince of the Lilies' fresco and dolphin frieze are famed. Though its reconstructions are debated, the site vividly tells of Aegean Bronze Age prosperity and myth — Crete's irreplaceable first stop.