The Iraklion Archaeological Museum The most magnificent collection of Minoan art and culture in the world, unique in beauty and completeness is housed in this museum. The Palace of Knossos The famous Palace of Minos 5km south of Iraklion. The Great Palace covered an area of 20.000 sq. meters and had 1.400 rooms. Every section of the Palace had a specific use. The Palace of Phaistos The archaeological site, the palace, the findings – The Festos Disc. According to mythology, Phaistos was the seat of king Radamanthis, brother of king Minos. It was also the city that gave birth to the great wise man and soothsayer Epimenidis, one of the seven wise men of the ancient world. The Palace of Zakros Like the other Cretan palaces, the palace of Zakros, was first built in about 1900 B.C. …The long term excavations have yielded over 10,000 objects… The archaeological site and the palace of Malia The Palace of Malia, which covered an area of 7,500 sq.m. , is the third- largest of the Minoan Palaces and is considered the most "provincial" from the architectural point of view.
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Little is known about the rise of ancient Cretan society, because very few written records remain, and many of them are written in the undeciphered script known as "Linear A". This contrasts with the superb palaces, houses, roads, paintings and sculptures that do remain. Cretan history is surrounded by legends (such as those of King Minos; Theseus and the Minotaur; and Daedalus and Icarus) that have been passed to us via Greek historian/poets (such as Homer). Because of a lack of written records, estimates of Cretan chronology are based on well-established Aegean and Ancient Near Eastern pottery styles, so that Cretan timelines have been made by seeking Cretan artefacts traded with other civilizations (such as the Egyptians) – a well established occurrence. For the earlier times, radiocarbon dating of organic remains and charcoal offers independent dates. Based on this, it is thought that Crete was inhabited from the 7th millennium BC onwards. The fall of Knossos took place circa 1400s BC. Subsequently Crete was controlled by the Mycenaeans from mainland Greece.
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Crete had one of the world’s earliest civilizations, the Minoan civilization, named after King Minos, the legendary author of Cretan institutions; in the ruined palace at Knossos invaluable finds have been made. The Cretan kingdom reached its greatest power, prosperity, and civilization c.1600 B.C. Later, for reasons still obscure, its power suddenly collapsed; but Crete flourished again after the Dorian Greeks settled on the island in large numbers and established city-states. Among the most powerful of the cities (110 in number, according to Homer) were Knossos and Cydonia (modern Khaniá). Although important as a trade center, Crete played no significant part in the political history of ancient Greece. It became a pirate haven in the 3d cent. B.C. but was conquered (68 B.C.–67 B.C.) by the Romans under Quintus Metellus.
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