Knossos photo, Crete Greece,

Antiquities of Crete

 

Knossos or Cnossus, ancient city of Crete (Kríti), on the north side of the island, some 5 km (some 3 mi) from the coast, near the modern city of Iráklion. In the 2nd millennium BC Knossos was a center of the highly developed Aegean civilization of the Bronze Age.

Knossos Palace

The tour of Knossos starts at the West Entrance to the Palace and circles back to the starting-point.

Knossos 2

Knossos (alternative spellings Knossus, Cnossus, Greek Κνωσός pronounced [knoˈsos]), also known as Labyrinth, or Knossos Palace, is the largest Bronze Age archaeological site on Crete and probably the ceremonial and political centre of the Minoan civilization and culture. The palace appears as a maze of workrooms, living spaces, and store rooms close to a central square. Detailed images of Cretan life in the late Bronze Age are provided by images on the walls of this palace. It is also a tourist destination today, as it is near the main city of Heraklion and has been substantially restored by archaeologist Arthur Evans.

Knossos

Knossos was undeniably the capital of Minoan Crete. It is grander, more complex, and more flamboyant than any of the other palaces known to us, and it is located about twenty minutes south of the modern port town of Iraklio.

Phaistos 2

Phaistos (Greek: Φαιστός), also transliterated as Phaestos, Festos and Phaestus is an ancient city on the island of Crete. Phaistos was located in the south-central portion of the island, about 5.6 kilometres from the Mediterranean Sea. It was inhabited from about 4000 BC.^[1] A palace, dating from the Middle Bronze Age, was destroyed by an earthquake during the Late Bronze Age. Knossos along with other Minoan sites was destroyed at that time. The palace was rebuilt toward the end of the Late Bronze Age.

Phaistos

The second largest palace of Crete, Phaistos is located in a spectacular setting. The buildings atop a rocky hill overlook the entire Messara plane and the Asterousia mountains to the South, and the Lasithi mountains to the East. To the west one can see the Messara gulf, while the imposing Mt. Idi or Psiloretis towers over the site to the North.

Minoan civilization

The Minoans were a pre-Hellenic Bronze Age civilization in Crete in the Aegean Sea, flourishing from approximately 2700 to 1450 BC when their culture was superseded by the Mycenaean culture. The Minoans were one of the civilizations that flourished in and around the Mediterranean during the Greek Bronze Age.