Heraklion, Crete

After a brief hydrofoil ride, we arrived in the ancient port city of Heraklion, Crete. Back in 2000 BC, it was called Poros and it was the port for the great Minoan palace complex at Knossos. The Romans called it Heracleium when they had it, the Arabs Chandax, and the Byzantines leveled it then rebuilt it. The Venetians bought it and named it Candia, the Ottomans beseiged it for twenty-one years, then named it Kandiye and left it abandoned, before the British administered it as Heraklion until it joined the independent Greek state as Iraklion in 1913. It’s currently the fourth largest city in Greece.

The most important part of the history was the first, where for several thousand years Heraklion was at the heart of Minoan culture, which was the most advanced in Europe at the time and the equal of Egypt. Much of the glory of this culture laid buried until well into the twentieth century, when archaeologists started unearthing and cataloging it.

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The Minoans remain a mystery. We don’t know their language, we don’t know what they called themselves, we don’t know why their highly-developed culture–which merited mention in Egypt at the time–disappeared. We do know it preceded ancient Greece, it was culturally and politically advanced, and it suffered a series of earthquakes, tsunamis, and changing climate.

The apex of Minoan culture was the Palace at Knossos, totally excavated (from whence all these artifacts come), partially restored, but only minimally understood.

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We also know the Minoans yielded to the Greeks and eventually to Rome.

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Most groups left their traces:

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The food continues to be tremendous, if a little bit much. Every restaurant where we’ve eaten has had some amazing views, either over the sea or fortress walls. Our last seafront stop had added entertainment. The tables overlooked the sea along a seawall, but the kitchen was across a busy street. It was hard not to watch the waiters and bussers and root for them to survive the crossing , loaded with full meals or stacks of empty plates.

In three days, we barely scratched the surface of Heraklion’s history, let alone the rest of Crete. We didn’t make it to a vineyard or olive grove, only saw Minoan and Venetian locations, didn’t hit a beach or small towns. Suffice it to say, Crete has something for everyone, with great weather, at reasonable prices.