Heraklion and Knossos, Crete

Monday, May 13

Our ship docked near the Venetian fortress in Heraklion shortly after 6:00 this morning and we found the disembarkation process less than ideal – the escalators were out of order and the truck and car traffic on the pier competed with pedestrians.  Luckily, there was a representative of our car rental agency there to meet us; all the necessary paperwork was completed with just a clipboard and ballpoint pen and the car was ours.

We figured out the lay of the land in Heraklion and decided to head for the Museum of Archeology, not far from the port.  Against all odds, we found a parking spot nearby and then stopped in a café on the square to spend the short time until the museum opened at 8:00.

We had the museum to ourselves (and a phalanx of employees) for most of the morning and what a morning it was!  The museum houses artifacts from the Neolithic period (7000 BC) through Roman times, but the treasures excavated at various sites of the Minoan civilization in Crete comprise the greatest part of the collection and they really steal the show.  The collection is organized chronologically and thematically and is beautifully presented – everything is well-labeled, context is explained, the glass display cases seem to disappear, making it seem as if we could reach out and touch it all, and photography is permitted!  Both the quality and quantity of the works in the collection are extraordinary.  The most finely detailed gold jewelry and seal stones, pottery, weapons, amulets, bronze figurines, sarcophagi and other funerary items, frescoes, household and ritual items, games and tools, coins and so much more; we were just dazzled by one of the best museums we’ve ever visited.

By the time we emerged, both the museum and the surrounding neighborhood had come to life.  We walked along a pedestrian street with the usual assortment of shops to the local market lane, with vendors selling everything from herbs and leather goods to fresh fish and t-shirts, where we picked up some lunch to eat in a shady square.

We spent the afternoon at the Palace of Knossos, on the outskirts of Heraklion, where many of the treasures housed in the museum were unearthed.  A succession of palaces were situated at Knossos, from 1900 BC until about 1400 BC and they contained domestic quarters of royal households, civic spaces, workshops and storehouses, accommodations for foreign visitors and traders; they were the center of the political and ceremonial life of the Minoan civilization.  Knossos also played a role in Greek mythology as the home of King Minos and the site of the labyrinth that housed the Minotaur.  The very structure of the palace itself is labyrinthine, with zigzagging corridors, staircases and levels.  While the palace complex sprawls over a large area, with a grand courtyard and great staircase, many of the rooms are on a very human scale.

The remains of the palace were discovered in 1900 by British archeologist Sir Arthur Evans, and over the course of 35 years, he excavated and reconstructed (sometimes controversially) parts of the huge complex. The reconstructed rooms and sections of repainted frescoes seem almost glaringly at odds with the bare stone walls that comprise the greatest part of the excavation.

Along with a small group of other visitors, we’d hired a guide to accompany us through the site, but it was our visit to the museum this morning that added the most to our understanding of the ruins.  For us, seeing the things that filled and decorated the complex made it easier to imagine the life that went on there than actually walking through the site did.  

We left Heraklion and drove about an hour east along Crete’s northern coast to Rethymno, our base for two nights.  After some delay due to a miscommunication with the property manager of our apartment, we were pleased to check in to a spot a block from the coast, and another chance for Tom to take sunset photos.