Things to do
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Heraklion Archaeological Museum
What was carried off Knossos is displayed here: the bull-leaping frescoes, the snake goddesses, the Phaistos Disc and the gold of the Minoan tombs, arranged over two floors in chronological order. Seeing the collection before the palace makes the ruin readable. Air conditioning and a couple of hours make it a sound middle-of-the-day stop in summer.
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Knossos
Bronze Age palace complex on a hill south of the city, the largest Minoan site on Crete and the one Arthur Evans rebuilt in painted concrete in the early twentieth century. Archaeologists still argue over those reconstructed columns and copied frescoes, which do make the plan legible. Shade is thin, the gate queue is long by ten, and a guide or a plan is needed to read the ruin.
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