We didn’t get to see much of the landscape of Crete on our stop because we didn’t have a long time in port. Since Heraklion was the center of the Minoan dynasty, there is a wonderful archaeological site and museum. We took a bus out of the city a little ways to visit the ruins of the Minoan kings’ palace at Knossos and stopped to see the artifacts at the museum when we returned to the city. We also had a little bit of time to shop for souvenirs so we all ended up with a Crete t-shirt and I also picked up a great Pythagoras t-shirt that I can’t wait to wear to work!
The first Minoan palace was initially constructed at the site in 1900 BC, but it was destroyed by fire in 1700 BC and had to be rebuilt. This palace is included in the Greek myths of King Minos and the Minotaur. The large size of the palace and the use of several different layers of buildings suggest that it could have held the famous Labyrinth. Theseus and the Minotaur has alway been one of my favorite Greek myths, so I was super excited to visit this site!
Since the palace is over 3,700 years old, the wall art that was discovered is not intact. The art seen on the walls at the palace are total replicas. The museum has pieces of the palace walls with the original artwork and fills in around the pieces so that viewers can see how the wall paintings looked in their entirety. I am amazed that the archaeologists and historians were able to determine the original art work from the pieces that they had.
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