Knossos

I have been fascinated by the Minoans and Knossos palace since I was in fourth grade. i expected it to sit high on a hill, easily spotted from far away. Instead, I drove up from the freeway through a very congested shopping area, finally cleared the last traffic circle and was in open country and then there was the parking lot, but I could not see the palace!

Surrounded by trees, it is not visible until you walk through th entrance. They open at 8 am and I was there at 8:06. I was just me and the staff until 9:30 when the school groups started to arrive.

I was thrilled to have the place to myself. I sat in the sun and situated myself to the layout as I also considered the site location. I walked into one veranda and a gentle wind blew and I imagined I heard young women singing sweetly. I started a little song myself.

It is easy to imagine this place a hubbub of activity and sophistication. What was interesting is that it is still not really known what was the purpose of some areas. Evans the excavator made guesses, but that was in the early 1900s. No one seems to have reassessed with the additional knowledge we have of ancient culture today.

He named one area the Piano Noble after an Italian Renaissance feature, but this civilization existed thousands of years prior. He also immediately did reconstruction of how he thought the palace looked because he feared additonal decay. Scholars had since questioned this approach. One area was recently renovated with period appropriate construction materials bf removed the work Evans had done.

So, I now understand how one of my friends found the palace to be a magical place and another was sorely disappointed. I am still in awe of the Minoan sophistication—running water, flush toilets, amazing frescos, and many finely appointed apartments.

All of the coloring and frescos are reproductions. The originals are in museums and in fact, one person told me if I wanted to see Knossos, I should have gone to the museum in Heraklion. But one cannot “feel” this place in a museum.

As I wa wrapping up my visit, the school kids arrived, loud and boisterous and inattentive to their teachers. I wanted to yell at them to pay attention, to understand their past, and to use it to make a better future for their country. But not we gone is a bistro geek like me…