I'm Going to Disney World

This morning we woke up early and hopped on the city bus for Knossos. A little bit of background on this archaeological site. The myth of Knossos is that it is the place where the first king of Crete – Minos – lived in his palace with his wife Pasiphae. Minos’s throne was threatened by his brothers and so he asked the gods on Olympus to help him, they sent him a magnificent bull to sacrifice to them and by this sacrifice, they would aide him in retaining his throne – however he didn’t sacrifice the bull, as it was too magnificent, and he dared to pull a bait and switch on the gods. This made Poseidon really angry, so he made Minos’s wife fall in love with the bull and bare a half bull half man-child – the Minotaur. This Minotaur was kept locked in a labyrinth under the palace of Minos until Theseus comes from Athens and kills the Minotaur and a whole lot of gods, humans, and familial drama (something with Icarus and melting wings and such) ensues.

The “real” story of this site is interesting, however with far fewer gods and man beasts. The city has been occupied since 6,000BC and the palace that is the main archaeological draw for tourists, has been there since about 2,000BC. The place is a magnet for earthquakes and fires, so over the eras the palace underwent many cycles of destruction and reconstruction. It was the seat of the Minoan civilization and was inhabited until the 5th century AD.

The site was discovered by a local merchant in Crete, and was quickly taken over by the “archaeologist” Sir Arthur Evans. Evans went about excavating and restoring the site with the use of materials that would never have been used in antiquity, and by making some imaginative guesses on what mural decorations and rooms were used for – while at the same time sending many unique artifacts back to England. Archeology was still in its infancy, but I must say that he took some Disney world like liberties with some of the restoration.

Either way, the site is enormous, with two and three story ruins scattered around the sprawling palace. We wandered around, trying to duck out of the heat and blazing sun as much as possible. It was the most crowded site I have ever been to, as we walked from site to site, we were cut off by rivers of tour groups who wandered like huge umbrella carrying and German speaking tributaries all feeding into a big lake that seemed to pool just outside of the main throne room site, with the final barrier to our archaeological enrichment being an Italian elementary school field trip…. THEY ARE EVERYWHERE!

It was an interesting site, but the gads of people sneaking cigarettes in the less popular areas, and the never ending tour groups combined with the odd “restoration” of the site will probably not put it tops on my favorites list.

We headed back into town and wandered about until it was time to head out to dinner, which was sadly disappointing (as despite its 8 page menu, only 5 items were for sale for dinner apparently as a result of a strike by some of the maritime workers who have kept fresh deliveries from many of the Greek islands). It was fine however, because I was able to finish up my meal with a double scoop of strawberry and kinder flavored gelato as we stood outside in the square outside of one of the modern art gallery and watched the free local concert for Critical Mass Cycling.