Knossos- A palace of pleasure. (Knossos)

Member Name: Meggysmum

Product:	Knossos
Date:	26/05/09 (35 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Interesting site with unusual features.

Disadvantages: Very hot and exposed so take your water.

On a trip to Crete in 2008 we visited Knossos. My son had just finished KS2 at primary school and they had done a lot of work on Greek Myths and he was particularly keen to visit the site. Having a child keen to visit ancient remains is an opportunity not to be missed so I booked our visit!

The Palace of Knossos is on a huge site showing a very complicated building plan. It is easy to see how the legend of the Labyrinth and the Minotaur came about. Bulls did used to run inside the palace on festival days and it seems that the Greek word for Labyrinth is very close to a word for the two-headed axe symbol which appears a lot around the Palace.

Some of the palace was reconstructed by Sir Arthur Evans in the early 1900s. There are parts of stairways, painted dolphin rooms and the enormous canopic jars are not to be missed. We queued for ages to view a very small room which contained a small throne and some wall paintings, to be honest they were not terribly impressive and I wouldn't queue again. The scope of the palace was the most impressive part and we had one of the local guides who was very knowledgable but didn't realise that us brits wilt in the heat and we kept having to try and find shade (there isn't a lot!)

There were lovely views from the back of the palace over the surrounding area.

It is an excursion I would certainly recommend if you are in Crete and certainly appeals to all the family which is always a bonus.

Summary: Great family trip.