We took our lives in our hands and hired a car to drive to Knossos. The Cretans don’t pay much attention to road rules and happily sped by us over double lines on the highway. We clung to the edge, and often half in the safety lane, which also seemed customary, for slow vehicles.

Knossos is small and on the outskirts of Iraklio, but attracts the most of the island’s tourists. We were pounced on by the cafe touts and tour guides outside, but once through, the site was strangely tranquil in spirit. It’s even more ancient than the Acropolis, dating from around 7000BC, and layered with various civilizations, in particular the Mycenaeans from around 1500BC. It also felt like it had been a big functional place, with multi-stories and levels, differently purposed rooms, courtyards and buildings.

The ruins were discovered in the early 1900’s by a team lead by an Englishman called Evans, and most of what is said about it is based only on his assumptions. Much is reconstructed as he thought it had been and it’s generally thought it can’t be ‘un-reconstructed’ even if that was agreed to be a good idea – which it probably would be! I had wanted to see the beautiful pottery that is associated with the place as well original frescos, but the museum where they are was in the Iraklio and closed. The frescos and urns in Knossos are replicas.

Interestingly, hieroglyphics discovered here – Cretan and ‘Linear A’ are still indecipherable!

Much of the stone is gypsum, and had interesting patterns of wear and crystals.

These were some of the smaller urns. They were maybe a bit over a metre, and wired together pieces. I assume they are replicas (now my default!).

I liked the frescos. Parts of them stood out a little bit in relief.

These storage urns were huge! Well over my height.

Pretty countryside on the hill opposite, with some gardening going on.

The bull fresco.

The Theatre. Theatre is important!

And Michael got us and the car back safely, despite my best efforts to snaffle us irretrievably in the narrow old town lanes while trying to navigate through one-way streets!