Our group left the ship at 1:45 for the hour's drive to Knossos, the famous site of King Minos' palace. The peaceful Minoan civilization (no walls around their towns) ruled Crete from 2000-1600 BC. That's almost 4000 years ago! The palace at Knossos was buried under over 50 feet of rubble when Sir Arthur Evans, British archaeologist, began excavation there in 1899. As he dug, he "restored" much of the palace to the way he thought it looked. Although it's interesting, he might have done a little bit too much. It was very hot, and the place hadn't changed much I had visited there in 2004, but it was interesting to see/hear other's thoughts on the restoration.
No matter what you think about what Evans did in his restoration, the palace is huge. Most people know the Greek myth story about the Minotaur and the labyrinth. The Knossos palace was the labyrinth, and the Minoan artwork is impressive.
At the conclusion of the tour, we had about 45 minutes of free time to shop and have a cold drink. We left Knossos at 5:15 and were back on the Aegean Odyssey by 6:30. I decided to have a quick dinner at the Terrace Cafe buffet rather than go to the main dining room. I had a large Greek salad (the second one today), red snapper, minute steak, potatoes, and ice cream. All was accompanied by a bunch of wine; it had been a long day!
The next day we would be at Delos in the morning and on Mykonos in the afternoon.
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