Crete

Minoan Art

What has survived to our day from Minoan art provides insight into the culture that flourished in Crete during the Aegean Bronze Age. The art of the Minoans speak of a society of joyous disposition, in touch with their environment,…
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Heraklion Archaeological Museum

One of the most important museums of Greece, the Heraklion Archaeological Museum (Αρχαιολογικό Μουσείο Ηρακλείου) displays artifacts from the numerous archaeological sites of Crete. The exhibitions span several millennia, beginning with finds from paleolithic Crete, and ending in the Roman…
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Sitia Archaeological Museum

The Archaeological Museum of Sitia (Σητεία, Siteia) houses a large number of Paleolithic, Minoan, Classical, Hellenistic, and Roman artifacts from excavations in Lasithi, Eastern Crete. Generally, the most important ancient finds from Crete are exhibited at the Heraklion Museum in…
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Crete: Minoan Archaeological Sites

Crete (Κρήτη), home of the ancient Minoan civilization, is the largest Greek island in the center of the busy eastern Mediterranean sea lanes. Its rich historical heritage spans more than nine millennia, with its fertile, secure, and strategically placed land…
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Knossos

Knossos (Κνωσσός, also transliterated as Cnossos, Knossus, Cnossus, Gnossus, Gnossos) palace was undeniably the most important center of Minoan Crete. It is grander, more complex, and more flamboyant than any of the other palaces known to us, and it is located…
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Malia

The Minoan palace at Malia (Μάλια) is the third largest palace of Minoan Crete after Knossos and Phaistos. The palace’s proximity to the sea was obviously important in the development of the site into a cultural hub for its Bronze…
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Phaistos

Phaistos (Φαιστός, also transliterated as Faestos, Phaestos, Faistos) is the second largest Minoan palace of Crete after Knossos. The Bronze Age palace is located on a low hill in the Messara plain south of Heraklion. The site was inhabited since…
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Palaikastro Minoan Settlement at Rousolakos

Παλαίκαστρο (Palaikastro, sometimes also transliterated as Palekastro) Minoan town unearthed at the Rousolakos location near the modern town of Palaikastro. The settlement is strategically located on the east shore of Crete, in Chiona harbor a few kilometers north of the…
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Zakros

The Minoan palace of Zakros (Ζάρκος, also known as Zakro, or Kato Zakros) is located on the east coast of Crete, in the slopes of a rugged hill near a sheltered harbor suitable to accommodating a large fleet vessels, than…
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Minoan Culture

Language The first written scripts of the Minoans resemble egyptian hieroglyphs. The Phaistos Disk which dates back to 1700 BC, is an example of such script. Later the emergence of a syllable based script we call Linear A permeates the island. Numerous…
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