Crete Part III: Knossos: How to entirely ruin a ruin

In the morning we headed for the famous archaeological site of Knossos, which I was really excited about seeing as it is not only something I've always read about, but also was one of the sites that got me interested in archaeology in the first place!
Unfortunately I was to find myself severely disappointed due to the preservation methods used.To explain this properly however, I must delve further into the excavation history itself, and in particular the main villain, a man called Sir Arthur Evens (curse his name!). Up until this point, my main vendetta in archaeology had been against the infamous Heinrich Schliemann, a man whose archaeological methods involved dynamiting through all nine layers of Troy, throwing out anything not shiny, and a propensity to make outrageous claims (I'm looking at you, so called 'Death mask of Agamemnon!) Arthur however, took it to a whole new level.
 Heinrich was in fact set to excavate Knossos himself, but thankfully died before he could desecrate it, allowing his good friend Arthur to step in (of course they were chums!) Arthur began his excavation in 1900, and continued for 35 years with a mixture of both excavation and partial 'restoration' As a product of his time, and more antiquarian than archaeologist, I allow him partial leeway for his methods. However his 'restoration' attempt at showing exactly how parts of the palace would have been, is not only dismal but horrifically damaging. Due to the methods he used it is now impossible to remove these changes and put it back to how it was, as areas have been completely rebuilt and restructured to the point that modern day archaeologists aren't even sure what it looked like before he got to work and which parts are old or new. Worse, his work was a complete guess and many have criticised it as nothing more than art deco fantasy (ouch).

All of this, whilst awful, is not my main problem with this ancient site. New conservation methods were implemented in the 1990s as winter rains were causing concern and the soft stone used for most of the building was subject to erosion. Instead of the usual covered roofs that are placed over the architecture and raised walkways to avoid damage by tourists, the majority of the site was simply sealed in concrete on all their surfaces - walls, floors, stairs. Everything was covered in a thin layer of concrete, causing this once wonderful site to lose all sense of age and personality.
Leaving the site feeling rather depressed, we headed for the Archaeological Museum of Heraklion, where all of the artefacts from Knosso are kept.

The museum was full of interesting pottery, weapons and ornate gold work that was extremely delicately made and beautiful to behold. We also of course, came across the recurring motif  of the bull that Knossos is famous for. The Minoan civilisation is an interesting and sometimes mysterious one. Starting in the bronze age, it predated the Mycenaean civilisation and is thought of as one of the most early complex civilisations in Europe, flourishing on Crete and other Aegean islands. Knossos is known as their largest site, with the famous palace and surrounding buildings. The reason for the name 'Minoan' comes from King Minos, a mythical character from the legends of the Minotaur, and the one who constructed the supposed Labyrinth for the monster, until Theseus killed it. The archaeology left by the Minoans supposedly gave credence to this story, as the bull was clearly an important symbol to them. However more than this is difficult to say, as the Minoan writing system (known as Linear A) are currently still not understood. 

Feeling pleased with our museum experience, we decided to try our luck at another archaeological site, the Palace of Malia. We didn't have high hopes after Knossos, however after seeing a sign for it we decided to spontaneously check it out - it surely couldn't be any worse! Happily we were in fact very pleasantly surprised. 

Malia had been excavated by the French Archaeological school, which meant everything was done with an extremely high level of precision and care. Better yet, the site was preserved with large coverings and wooden walkways for tourists - why couldn't Knossos take a leaf out of their book! The site was overall far more enjoyable to visit than Knossos, still holding onto its ancient context and allowing you to feel its sense of age, as all good ruins should. Interestingly the visible ruin we saw was not the first palace but the second, the one prior was destroyed - probably by an earthquake - and it was rebuilt around 1650 BC. 

Our busy day was far from over, as after a good wander through the ruins we next headed for the famous Dikteon cave, where in antiquity it was believed that it was here Rhea gave birth and hid Zeus from his child-eating father Cronus. Due to this belief it was an important place of religion in ancient times, and many votive offerings were found there. 

The tourist trade had of course seized on the dramatic sounding 'Cave of Zeus!' and we found it busy with tourists, however I still enjoyed it thoroughly. It was a good trek up the mountain, and some tourists paid donkeys to take them up part of the way, leaving us plebs to sidestep the manure left behind.

The cave itself was far larger than I expected,  and we descended carefully into its maw, clutching the damp railings with care. Huge stalactites hung from the ceiling and the large area was bathed in a green glow that made photos turn out less than attractive. However the cave itself was beautiful and eerie, and well worth it to me, even with all the other tourists bumbling around.  

We had climbed our way up to the Lasithi plateau to see the cave, and drove back across it afterwards. It was strange being so high up when we were on such a large plateau. A great expanse of flat fields lay before us, and it was difficult to imagine the sea being so far below us. We stopped briefly to take in the ruins of windmills which we had seen earlier but had been inundated by tourists at the time. Now empty, we still only stopped briefly, as unsurprising given the nature of these ruins, it was extremely windy. 

Driving through the plateau after admiring its views, we got down to business. We were on the hunt for lunch, but did not have high hopes as it was by now rather late in the afternoon. However this was Greece! Not France or Italy where after 2pm everyone closes shop for the afternoon. We were pleasantly surprised to come across a beautiful little taverna that did not have any other customers but was more than happy to serve us. Our waiter was a greek man in properly traditional dress, from the beige trousers going into his tall leather boots to his white shirt and amazing twizzly moustache and big beard. He was friendly and the food was very good which all made for a very good meal!

We shared a bunch of dishes tapas style, from stuffed peppers to snails! This was a first for Yannick and I, and although our waiter had expertly shown us with a little twist of the wrist how to get them from their shells, it turned out to be far harder in actual practice. After much huffing and puffing and fork prodding, we were able to try this strange delicacy, and I had to admit to my surprise that I quite liked them, once you got over the odd texture. These were done in rosemary and oil, and I would curious to see what the more traditional garlic and butter would taste like.
Another point that needs raving about is the most amazing olive oil that he provided us with. It was so delicious we used copious amounts of it to dip our bread. Our waiter explained that the families of the village all grew olives in their gardens, and then came together to harvest them and make a small amount of oil just for the village, and in his family's case, for their restaurant.

Our next destination was the village of Myrtos, so we headed back onto the road again. We had booked accomodation on booking.com so we weren't too worried about getting there in the evening. However upon our arrival they told us they had no rooms available, and there was nothing they could do, even though we had already been charged for the rooms! While dad got the owner to come down and tried to reason with him, Necia and I set off to have a quick look around the village for other accomodation. It was a terribly cute place with little alleyways and pretty places that beckoned from just around the corner, but we were on a mission! Although we tried every sign for accomodation we came across, everywhere was full or didn't have the space for all of us. The last place we tried ended with a friendly man at the cafe ringing for us and although we had no luck there, he cheerfully invited us back later that evening for live music which sounded lovely. 

We were just giving up and driving around in slight desperation when we saw a somewhat hidden hotel outside of the town which had enough rooms for us and even a pool!

Deciding it was high time to unwind, we decided to head back to the village, thinking we would grab a drink and listen to some live music before heading to dinner. Unfortunately it proved so popular there were no seats left! We headed instead for a restaurant around the corner called Katerina, which wasc beautifully placed in a cobblestoned alleyway with a patchwork of vines above our heads.

We dined on Ouzo flambéed Saganaki (fried cheese) and Necia was able to introduce me to Skordalia, a potato dip made with garlic and herbs and just about the nicest thing I've ever eaten (although the garlic kick had me trying not to breathe on anyone by the end). I was amused by the table next to us soon asking the waiter if they could please have some flaming cheese too? It had certainly been an impressive spectacle. I was also impressed with the Raki that was as usual given to us at the end of the meal - it was extremely nice and mild. Perhaps I should judge restaurants quality by how edible their Raki is in the future.