This morning I left Crete and flew to Thessaloniki, where we are spending three nights. Our last two days were spent traveling from Chania to Ηράκλειο (Heraklion) and visiting the Palace of Minos at Κνωσσός (Knossos).
I’m finding more and more that photos tell my stories better than I do, so I’ll be brief here as I review the last two days.
But first, a retraction
In my last post, I wrote, “I just admire Greek for having one letter for sounds that the Latin alphabet requires two letters to spell.” I was referring to using the letter chi (Χ) to represent the single phoneme spelled “ch” by Germans and the letter theta (Θ) to represent the sound we spell “th” in words like “thing.” I appreciate the one-to-one correspondence between letters of the alphabet and phonemes.
But then I learned that Greek has two-letter combinations to represent phonemes we spell with single letters in English. For example, there is no single Greek letter pronounced like “b” or “d.” To spell the “b” sound, Greek uses the letter combinations mu and pi (μπ). To spell the “d” sound, Greek uses nu plus tau (ντ). It seems they use beta for “v” and delta for voiced “th” (as in “the”).
I’m sure this is interesting to no one except me, but I wanted to set the record straight.
The drive to Heraklion
We left Chania and headed east along the north coast of Crete. We made a stop at Lake Kournas, Crete’s only freshwater lake. There was also a cemetery nearby that we visited.
Ρέθυμνο
From there we drove to Rethimno, a historic city that goes back to Minoan times. When Venice conquered Crete in the 13th century, they established a commercial center here, roughly halfway between Chania and Heraklion. The old town was built almost entirely by the Republic of Venice, and is one of the best preserved old towns in Crete. (Is it correct to say “in Crete,” or should I say “on Crete”?)
Although there is a lot of Venetian architecture remaining in the old town of Rethimno, so much of it is camouflaged behind touristy storefronts. Still, I enjoyed wandering through the narrow pedestrian-only streets, and to be fair, I don’t mind browsing in some of these shops.
Αχλάδα
Petros, our Trip Experience Leader (TEL), told us only that we’d be having lunch in a ghost town.
Achlada is a town up in the hills, not far from the coast, used to have people, but they’ve almost all left for villages and towns right on the water. Petros said there are just 8 people living there, though other estimates are as high as 25. And it seems to be growing: we saw a number of newly renovated houses that look like they will be vacation rentals (Airbnbs).
There is a tavern in Achlada, and apparently it is a popular stop for folks from the nearby villages as well as a few tourists who look for it after reading about Crete’s ghost town on social media. They put out a huge and delicious lunch for us.
The primary residents we saw were goats and olive trees.
Heraklion and Knossos
Heraklion is the largest city on Crete and the fourth largest city in Greece. The area has been inhabited since at least 7000 BCE, making this one of the oldest inhabited places in Europe. And it’s also one of the top tourist destinations in Europe (unbeknownst to me prior to this trip). There were a lot of people, including cruise ships.
The primary reason for interest in the area is the Palace of Minos at Knossos. Heraklion was originally the port area for the ancient city of Knossos, which was a major center of Minoan civilization from 1900 BCE, when the Palace was built, to 1350 BCE, when it was destroyed by an earthquake and fire.
The Palace
We visited the Palace on Friday. According to our guide, Lina, Minos Kalokairinos, a Cretan businessman, discovered the Palace by accident, when he was digging up some vegetation and as he pulled something out of the ground, he saw a piece of pottery enmeshed in the roots. I have no idea if that’s really how he found it, but in any case he began excavating the area in 1878. Until that time, the existence of pre-Hellenic cultures on Crete was unknown.
In 1878 Crete was still under Ottoman rule, and the Turkish government forced Kalokairinos to stop work. But what he managed to discover piqued the interest of Sir Arthur Evans, a British archaeologist. In 1900, with the Ottomans no longer in power in Crete, Evans bought the rural area that included the land where the Palace was located and began excavation.
Theseus and the Minotaur
In Greek mythology we have the story of Theseus and the Minotaur. There are multiple versions of the story, but read this one. Go ahead. I’ll wait.
The Minotaur (Minos’s Bull) had the head and tail of a bull and the body of a man. It was the offspring of King Minos’s wife, Pasiphae, and a bull. King Minos had the Labyrinth built to hide the Minotaur, and that’s where the creature lived. Or perhaps the Palace was the Labyrinth. While we were visiting the Palace, I asked our guide Lina, where it is believed this Labyrinth was, and this is what she suggested. And Arthur Evans wrote that the maze-like quality of the Palace reminded him of the legend of the Labyrinth. As we wandered around the ruins, it became clear that one could easily have gotten lost in this massive, multi-level structure.
Here’s a plan. Judge for yourself.
Evans’s work
Arthur Evans completed excavations of the Palace in 1905. It was clear that a civilization as yet unknown to the world had lived here in the second millenium BCE, and he dubbed it the Minoan civilization (after fictional King Minos).
Much controversy surrounds Evans’s work at Knossos. He identified one room as the throne room because there was a throne-like stone chair fixed in the room. He hired a father-son team of Swiss artists to paint the room, and although he based his recreations on archaeological evidence, many other archaeologists believe the Swiss artists invented some of the frescoes in the throne room.
Throughout the Palace are similar recreations, restorations, and reconstructions that were probably inaccurate and are now irreversible.
Still, it was interesting to walk through the Palace ruins and imagine it as it might have been more than 3000 years ago.
In the Heraklion Archaeological Museum are a lot of objects found among the ruins, many of which are in remarkably good condition. Many of these were found in underground vaults or in tombs, where they were protected from damage when earthquakes destroyed the structures around them.
You can watch one or both of these digital recreations if you want, before or after you check out the rest of my photos of Knossos. But you might want to turn down your volume before you watch the videos; the musical soundtracks are pretty annoying.
Heraklion
The city of Heraklion had a few things of interest, most particularly the Archeological Museum. There is also a fort at the former Venetian Harbor on the waterfront (photo at the top of this post). You can find all my photos from Heraklion in my online album (link at the bottom of the post).
A word about ancient stuff
Before I sign off, I need to set the record straight about something I said regarding ancient Rome.
I was a bit unenthusiastic about the remnants of ancient Rome. And now I’m gushing about ancient Greek ruins.
First off, I’m not really gushing. It’s all very interesting, but in fact, I’m not really blown away by ancient Greece any more than I was by ancient Rome.
But I think the issue about ancient Rome was that it was juxtaposed with things I found far more interesting. Here in Greece, the ancient stuff is far and away the most interesting stuff.
And I guess here I’m finding it easier to imagine the past based on what remains. For some reason that was harder to do in Rome.
I will still admit to being more enamored of more recent history, and sculpture and painting from more recent times. I’ve been missing art.
But what I’m seeing on this trip is still thrilling.
Here are the photo albums from the last two days in Crete:
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