The Minoan Palace of Knossos is located roughly 5 kilometers away from Heraklion. We got a chance to visit what is known as the largest Bronze Age architectural site when we visited Crete. Knossos Palace complex (Cnossos Palace) began in the Neolithic period and survived until around 1380 BC.
At its most populated, it is estimated that 100,000 people lived in the surrounding city, including 18,000 in the palace complex. It was amazing to be able to see and walk in the footsteps of ancient Minoans. I think a visit to Knossos Palace is worthy of any Crete itinerary as it is also the largest of all the discovered palaces. This post is full of images of our visit.
Knossos Palace Heraklion Crete Visit:
Knossos Palace: Getting there
Getting to Knossos is quite easy from the city of Heraklion. There is a Knossos bus that you can catch from the one and only bus station in town. Note that there is no need to go inside the building. The ticket booth is outside, off to the corner. The cost was €2.60 l think for the round trip. The bus says Knossos right on it and it is the last stop, so you can’t miss it. There is a bus every 20 minutes or so. The journey was about twenty minutes including the stops along the way.
The entry fee for Knossos Palace complex is €6. We purchased a combined ticket which also let us visit the Heraklion Archaeological Museum. A very good deal indeed as we thoroughly enjoyed both places. One of the first things you see upon entry to Knossos Palace is a huge statue of the archaeologist Arthur Evans. He was the man who discovered the ruins of the ancient Minoan civilization. He then put it all together based on how he thought the complex would have looked all those years ago. There are some with the school of thought that the complex is not authentic. I think it’s probably a good replication of the way things were, or how l imagined things were.
Knossos Tour:
Looking back, I think we would have benefited from hiring a guide for our visit to Knossos. It didn’t happen for one big reason:
- the guides were pushy and were asking for €30 each! Not sure if it was because it was not super crowded, so they wanted to make their full wages or what! For that price, I would want a small group tour. Hell NO!
The good news though is that the signs are written in Greek as well as English, so you are able to understand what each place is and was. If you choose to have a guide, consider booking one ahead of time. The site is pretty large and I found it quite interesting. It reminded me a lot of Italica Ruins in Seville. Some of the sections that we saw at Knossos Palace included:
The Throne Room at the Minoa Palace:
Knossos Archaeological site: I think this room was my favourite in the complex and what a find it must have been. The most important room in the whole Minoan city.
It is believed that the room was used during religious ceremonies. There is what l considered a very small chair (they must have been quite little in those days) and stone benches in the room, along with stone vases that were used for rituals and would have contained oils. Lots of mythical beasts artwork in the series of rooms. Kind of dark in there and we saw some bats flying in and out of there which made me anxious and l left pretty quickly. I hate all sorts of birds and creepy crawlies :-).
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Rows of steps and a platform makes for an angle, the bottom of which leads to a paved court and a road going the other way that passes under modern Heraklion and connected the palace to the Minoan town. Sir Evans believed that this was where the townspeople would stand to observe palace ceremonies.
West Wing:
Central Court:
Prince of Lilies Fresco:
This was badly eroded and then reconstructed. No one is sure if it is a prince, a king, or even a woman. The only thing they know for sure was that it was a figure wearing jewelry in the shape of lilies. What do you think?
There were a few other sections that l can not recollect :-). I was more than happy to catch little bits and pieces from passing groups on a tour. Something we learned was that the people lived in really, really, close quarters and spent most of the day outside. When children died, they were buried under the house. We saw some mummified bodies at the museum, both young and old. I can’t even begin to imagine the smells inside, despite embalming.
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Tips on visiting Knossos Palace:
- Plan on spending at least 2.5 hours there. It is quite big
- Consider getting a private combination guided tour as there is a lot to learn. The originals of the artifacts found are contained at the Heraklion Museum, another place we enjoyed thoroughly.
- Bring water. Once you leave the entrance, there is no place to get any refreshments.
- Wear a hat
- Wear sun protection. It’s all open-air
- Wear comfortable shoes
- There are levels, so you have to climb up and down steps, we did see some wheelchair-friendly ramps.
- If you’re doing a self-tour, take note that the bus back to town does not say Iraklion like you would think, so we missed at least a couple of buses on the way back. Ask the driver if the bus stops at the central bus station and get on anyone that does.
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Have you been to Greece? Did you like being up close with ancient history? What do you think of Knossos Palace and its insanely ancient history?
That tip about the return bus trip is invaluable!
I certainly wish we had known it. We stood in the heat for quite a while :-). Thanks for reading.
LOL Kemkem; King Minos was Tyrion Lannister from A Game of Thrones. What a tiny throne, and yes, what an amazing place. Fabulous post as always, buddy.
OMG! I had no idea about King Minos until l looked up the name and then l was laughing so hard, and for the longest time, tears were streaming down my face. I was just making an observation.. I haven’t seen the show past 2 episodes of the first season, but l do love Peter Dinklage :-). Thanks for giving me the best laugh in ages!
A place that was home for 100,000 people during those times is humongous. One can only imagine how difficult it was to live during those times… and bury your relatives under the house? Now that’s a way to scar people for life. Probably that’s when nightmares were created :)) Otherwise, a great place indeed!
It was definitely big and must have been impressive in its glory days. The life expectancy was so short then, but l have always been amazed that they definitely found time to procreate 🙂 :-)! Yeah.. it was jarring seeing little dead bodies in like jars/small coffins at the museum. All l keep thinking is the smell! For sure, they didn’t bathe everyday either, couple that with dead bodies..and yikes 🙂 :-).
We loved the museum but have to admit we were somewhat underwhelmed by Knossos. . .way too much reconstruction based on the ideas of how it looked back then. . .maybe we will go back one day and see if it strikes us differently. The museum however we thought was awesome! (And we loved the bus ride).
Haha! Imagine, I liked it even more because of the the reconstruction. I could totally picture it being just like that way back then since they mostly would have used henna or clay coloring. Hah! The museum was awesome. It was insanely crowded but for reason, after each group would move on and before the next came, you could have the display almost to yourself. We thought we would spend like 2 hours, but it was over 3. An awesome place indeed! 🙂 .
Kemkem, we visited Knossos few years ago with our children. We all enjoyed it very much, but regrettably we did not have a guided tour and I think it would have been even more enjoyable if we had invested in having a guide, there is so much to see there. The history of it all fascinates me. All your tips are great, it was a very hot day when we visited so having plenty of water and sun protection is a must indeed.
Gilda, this is one instance where l think a guided tour would have added so much more to the experience. It is totally worth it. There definitely is a lot to see and comprehend. Yeah..you can get a heat stroke if you’re not prepared. I’m so glad you guys enjoyed it, there is nothing like seeing history in real life. Absolutely fascinating.
Great photos (as always) that give me a sense of being there.The “Prince of Lilies” fresco is amazing. I kind of like the mystery of not knowing who it was! Anita
I really liked that Prince of Lilies too, and l definitely liked his interpretation. A lot of those men in the past looked very effeminate in my opinion so it could have been a man or woman :-). It’s amazing that the site has survived for so long. Very interesting stuff.