Knosos Travel Guide

The palace of Knosos in Crete is a trip of a lifetime. You will travel back in time to the place where King Minos held Court. The ruins were excavated almost 80 years ago. The artifacts were taken from the site and put into the heraklion museum for safe keeping. Dont be surprised to see guards with submachine guns walking all over the place here. The ancient Minoans had actually found a process of Graining GOLD...one that we cannot figure out how they did it. Apparently the palace was destroyed by fire as evidenced by the charred teracotta jars found. There are also a bunch of incredible fresco's down into the ruins. The tile work is STILL mostly intact. The queens bathroom is actually very, very nice. It has dolphins (blue) on the walls and a nice bathtub. There is also a throne room, but the thrones for the King and Queen are not very impressive.. no gold or anything on the thrones. Just ...normal kind of chairs n a big room....nothing special really. but Had a great time going all over the place that entire day. The Minoans also had running water and sewer! Terracotta pipe can still be found in the ground and STILL provides some water! its actually flows from over 3000 yards away and from another hill. If you can go here - GO! I was there 35 years ago and its still fresh in my memory like it was yesterday! The local food is spectacular!

The famous Minoan Palace of Knossos is situated approx. 5-6 km south of Iraklion . Knossos was the most impressive and luxurious building , which could be seen in Europe in the Bronze Age (2800-1100 BC).
Excavations were first conducted by Minos Kalokairinos and later by the Englishman Sir Arthur Evans. The palace was built twice , the second time even more beautiful than the first time. It covered an area of 22,000 square meters. There were about 1,400 rooms in the original palace, there lived 300 people ( Knossos Royal Family and their service staff ). The king was called Minos, son of Zeus.
In Crete there are 4 Minoan palaces, but Knossos is the largest of them . All the palaces are very characteristic in their courtyards , temples and storerooms . At Knossos are two big paved courtyards, many storerooms , temples , private rooms and a theater. Some places were 4-5 floors high. Staircases with shallow alabaster steps led up to the upper floors or underground floors.