Greece Day 10: Palace of Knossos

Today we started our sojourn in Crete, a destination we are both pretty excited about!  We opted for an hour on a plane instead of nine hours on the ferry, and were met  by our guide for the week, Panos Kritikos around 2:30. He immediately whisked us away to the very large and impressive Palace of Knossos.  

Although this site is the largest Minoan ruin and one of the most interesting, it does not qualify as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. This is because the first British excavator, Arthur Evans, in his effort to make it a attractive to tourists, reconstructed the most significant areas of the site and in the process covered over what lay beneath with concrete, preventing further excavation of the underlying layers. It is, however, part of the multi site Minoan complex that is a UNESCO designated area. Although an anathema to current day archeologists, the extensive reconstructions do provide a sense of what it might have looked like originally, which helps the visitor to appreciate the scope and power of the Minoans in the 15th century BC.

Panos explained how the Minoans were influenced by the Egyptians with whom they traded, sending olive oil to Egypt and bringing back skilled workers, artisans and craftsmen.  This fresco shows the influence of Egyptian art, with the basic rigid style of Egyptian paintings, but with a little more sense of movement and less adherence to the style of the Egyptians.

Example of the early reconstruction of the palace in the back and original Minoan walls in the foreground.

We spent two hours at the site, and covered a lot of ground - both physically and historically.  Panos did a great job of explaining the rise of the Minoan culture, especially in the context of other cultures like Egyptian, and Akroteri (in Santorini) that were thriving at the time.

reconstructed walls outside the palace.

Large clay jars for transporting oil and grain.

Reconstructed “throne room," there is no evidence to support that usage, but it was probably a ceremonial room of some sort because of the basin.

Queens chambers

Ceremonial staircase leading to the king’s bedroom.

Painted freize or Bull with Olive tree representing Zeus (father of King Minos) and the olive oil that brought them wealth.

Ceremonial area outside the palace complex at the end of a long passage between the King’s palace  and a smaller palace in the town, where performances were probably held.

After a quick tour of the town of Heraklion, Panos took us to our historic hotel - The Megaron, right on the water front and near the city center of Heraklion.  We rested for a bit, then headed out for a walk and dinner.

We enjoyed walking along the old Venetian streets (which have been made into a substantial pedestrian area), seeing Venetian loggia, as well as a Greek Orthodox Church of St Titus, where the Apostle’s actual skull can be viewed!

Venetian loggia

St Titus Church

We had  delicious “street food” meat sandwiches with pita and tsaziki, and then had a pleasant wander home again.

Greece Day 8 & 9: Back to Athens

On Monday it was time to leave village life in the Peloponnese behind and return to the big city.  We packed up our bags, and hit the road, making a few stops on the way.

Our favorite stop was to see the deepest part of the Corinth Canal.  We saw the mouth on our way west a few days ago - but the profoundly deep and narrow cut through the mountain was a lot more dramatic.

Back in Athens we went to a hill top taverna in the city and enjoyed a delicious traditional Greek late lunch.  

From there we crossed the city again to climb up the very steep and beautiful Lycabettus Hill, which is a city park that happens to have a great view of the Parthenon.  We caught the end of the sunset and the lights coming up in the Acropolis, and then headed to our guest house to settle in for the night.

Today we had a quiet morning, enjoying the excellent breakfast at our B&B, and doing some errands.  Then we got on the subway  to Syntagma Square to watch the changing of the guard at the tomb of the Unknown Soldier which is in front of the Parliament building.  We enjoyed the pomp and ceremony, as well as the weird hand gestures made by the soldiers not to mention their amazing muscular control in their legs. In addition to standing absolutely still for an hour, these soldiers perform a complicated and exaggerated goose step, thrusting their legs out parallel to the ground,  holding that stance for a moment, and then bending their knees before lowering their legs … wearing shoes that weigh three kilo (7 lbs)!!

We spent most of the afternoon at the museum of Ancient Greek Technology.  The museum had lots of friendly staff who were happy to help us enjoy the demonstrations on different technologies.  It was a bit mind-blowing to see the number, scope and sophistication of the devices and machinery that were invented during the greatest flowering of the Greek civilization around the 2nd and 3rd centuries BC. Subsequently, the civilization lost its creativity and  verve and a similar flowering of creativity did not occur again until the 13th century AD. Along with the written descriptions of the devices there were short videos showing how they worked which were very helpful in understanding their usefulness. There were all kinds of clocks, medical devices, wine pourers, astronomical calculators and other gadgets.  There was a school group there, having fun with the water-based pulleys and whistles, but there were many interactive opportunities that adults enjoyed as well. 

The top floor was dedicated to ancient musical instruments,with models of many  instruments along with pictures from ancient urns and frescoes showing how they were played. Many of the display cases had a button which you could push to hear the sounds they made.  There were also many early devices created by those ancient scientists who were exploring the fundamentals of how musical sounds are made. 

On the bottom floor there was a display of ancient armor, many examples of “muscle armor” - bronze upper body shields with anatomical detail. There were also examples of full body armor designed to protect the wearer and frighten the enemy. 

After all that mental stimulation, we walked over the National Garden nearby and sat on a bench for a while resting our backs and enjoying some delicious ice cream. The Garden had its full complement of plants, but also had several areas with Roman ruins that had been discovered when the garden was created. 

Around 4 pm we headed to another hilltop taverna to meet Dennis and some of his friends for a late lunch/ early dinner.  We had yet another delicious meal (pasta with salmon, lemon and ginger, an unusual and delightful combination) and enjoyed learning about ex-pat life in Athens.

View from the taverna.

Top of the hill by the restaurant in the sun.

Amazingly steep road descending from the hill top  

Statuary in a traffic circle 

Dennis took us back to our guest house, and we said goodbye!  So lovely to see friends on your travels.