Based on the recommendation of the curator that we met at the Archaeological Museum of Heraklion, we decided to end our stay in Crete with a visit to the Palace of Phaistos, one hour drive southwest of Knossos.
The palace is located on Kastri hill and looks down upon the surrounding area that is now covered with olive groves and vineyards. Just as the curator from the museum said, the site is completely authentic and unmarred by any extensions of the imagination. Also, as the curator told us, very few visitors actually make it to Phaistos. On this afternoon, we were the only visitors at the entire site.
To lay people like us, it was admittedly difficult to decipher the ruins that lay before us. Without anywhere to focus their attention, the children wasted no time taking advantage of the small rooms and half walls and started a game of hide and seek throughout the ruins. We didn’t think we were bothering anybody until the caretaker delivered a reminder to the children that running was not allowed.
It was helpful that we had first visited the Palace of Knossos and the Archaeological Museum of Heraklion, so we at least had some idea of what to expect. The original Palace of Phaistos was built toward the end of the 20th century BC. It was most likely destroyed by an earthquake and was replaced by a new palace. Unlike other palaces where much of the original construction was completely destroyed, the new palace of Phaistos was sometimes simply built over the old palace. The original palace had a larger footprint compared to the newly built palace, so over time, parts of the old palace were left exposed.
The new palace was destroyed sometime in the mid 15th century BC, after which only parts of the palace remained occupied. Archaeologists believe that by the time the new palace was constructed, Phaistos was already on the decline which could explain why very few artifacts of significance like frescoes and tablets were discovered during excavations of the new palace.
We walked through the site and with the help of informational plaques, tried to make sense of the different spaces.
In the evening, we stopped at a local mall near Heraklion port for a bit of shopping. The kids were thrilled to see the Christmas decorations everywhere. We couldn’t help feeling excited about the approach of Christmas.
After 10 days in Crete, we were back on the overnight ferry and headed back to Athens.
