Knossos

Our villa was only a few minutes drive from Crete's most famous site, the ruins of the ancient Minoan Palace of Knossos. It was therefore an obvious place for us to visit. Along with coachloads of tourists of course. The photos below may give you a feeling of serenity. This is careful artifice on my part. It was possible to find gaps in the crowds simply because most people were in tour groups and so were led around in tight clusters.

The palace site creates an interesting ethical dilemma. Quite simply modern methods or archaeology and conservation would not have left the place looking like this. It was heavily restored in parts by Sir Arthur Evans at the beginning of the twentieth century, and such restorations (especially as in part they were based largely on conjecture) would be frowned upon by modern academics and conservationists. But without them this would be a much less enjoyable site, and I suspect a vastly less frequented one. So the Cretan tourist board should offer a vote of thanks to "less enlightened" times!

The ruins are quite extensive (fortunately given visitor numbers), but what is amazing is that they date back to around 1500BC, nearly a thousand years before classical Greece, and of course 3500 years ago. In comparable terms we have only some stone circles, large mounds and the stains left by our wicker huts. This was a trading civilisation (albeit one predated by the Egyptians, which is even more amazing to contemplate).

Anyway, below are my photos. I was happily clicking away, so there are quite a lot. A few captions should suffice from now on.

The restored frescoes of the "Cup-bearers"

There are large numbers of these huge storage jars around the palace. It was not just a place for ruling from, but clearly also maintained the local food stores.

As you can see, not quite alone...

David in his fetching hat

 The restored piano nobile contains some restored frescoes. The Minoans had a distinctive and not unattractive artistic style. The figures have an exaggerated sense of grace about them - Mannerist 3000 years before Mannerism..

This was the queue to get a glimpse of the Throne Room. Alison left me to it. She said she would only join a queue that long if there was an actual live Minotaur at the other end. (There wasn't.)

So this is the Throne Room. Actually they reckon maybe for a high-priest rather than royalty. But that is conjecture. Throne is an interesting shape, but the wall-decoration is most eye-catching.

Fresco of a charging bull. This was part of a passageway, so not meant to be seen from behind these pillars.

 One could get down frm the guided tour paths and behind and below the edge of the palace. So I did. Only a handful of others did so. remember, most people keep to the herds and are shepherded through.

 The Royal Apartments. Back in the thick of tourists. A lot of slow shuffling.

The main room of the Queen's Suite again has a very fetching decorative scheme. I would be very happy to have this fresco of dolphins in my bathroom

Probably the best view of the charging bull.

The Royal Road