Knossos....

Yesterday Brandon and I took the bus to Heraklion to visit Knossos and the Archaeological Museum. We got lost trying to get to the Museum... we had started to walk in completely the wrong direction from the bus stop... Luckily the people who gave us directions in the end (we asked three different people) actually gave us a map and was very thorough. The Museum was awesome, but there were a lot of people there, and a visiting school class. So we were sort of pushed quickly through. What we did see was very interesting, and thankfully we can continue to study the artifacts online, if we so choose.

Here is the Price of Lilies fresco. You can see part of the original fresco, but a lot of it has been reconstructed. There is debate over whether this figure was some type of ceromonial priest, an important person of the upper class, or an actual prince. I think a lot of people lean towards actual prince.

Here is some pottery. I can't actually remember if all of this comes from Knossos or not. But I think the designs are very interesting, because I feel we see a lot of these shapes and figures in today's more modern art.

I think a lot of this jewelry was found at Knossos. I was really impressed with it, because most of it is really quite pretty. You know how sometimes you look at older jewelry and it's not attractive? I think I could wear most of these pieces any day.

The minotaur! Well, a bull at least. There is some mythology associated with Knossos, but one cannot be sure whether it's largely a product of Arthur Evans publicity. Bulls are strongly associated with Knossos's religion/sacred practices, and if I remember correctly, the bull and double headed axe is a symbol of power. If anyone knows the history better, feel free to educate!

One of the double headed axes that was in the Museum. It was huge! (Pay no attention to the camera just above the axe.) The wooden handle is not original, but the bronze is.

This is the fascinating Phaistos Disk. It is double sided with hieroglyphics, and has yet to be deciphered. They date it to the Minoan times.

These are busts of Octavian Augustus and his third wife, Livia. These obviously is later than the other findings, such as the Phaistos Disk. They show the entry of Roman culture on Crete. There were a number different sculptures in the Museum.

The camera battery was running low at this point, which was a huge bummer, and Brandon and I were being very selective with what we took pictures of. Maybe someday we will come back and take a hundred more pictures... the ones we couldn't because of the battery....

Here we are at the beginning of our tour of Knossos! This is the ancient theatre. The bottom is where the stage would be, and you can see stairs on the top and to the right of the picture, out of the frame.

Here is Brandon in front of a small part of the palace. The wall you see behind and to the left is largely reconstructed under Arthur Evans direction. We were quite surprised with how much was actually reconstructed. It was very cool, but we also wonder how accurate it is.

This is the Lustral Basin. Completely reconstructed, and it's hypothesized (by Evans) that it was used for ceremonial cleansing or washing before entering the palace.

Here is the fresco of the Charging bull! Again, this is complete reconstruction by Evans, but I believe there are pieces of the original being preserved.

As cool as the reconstruction is, the original stonework is probably the most amazing. There are a lot of steps, which shows how many levels Knossos had. These stairs Brandon and I think are mostly original (although the top step is reconstructed).

Here is some wall art. It was inside of a room that was glassed and roped off, and this was the only part of the room we could see because of the glare off of the glass. It might be original, which is why is so protected. Brandon isn't sure it is, though, because he doesn't think there is really any painting that's preserved at the actual archaeological site.

Here is a room with the remnants of a shrine. The room is largely reconstructed, but the throne/shrine I believe is original.

I gave up the camera in exchange for the camera bag for awhile.

These are the "Horns of Consecration". There is a lot of dispute over their meaning, but they are clearly an important part of Minoan religion, since bulls horns are found in abundance at many religious sites.

Here is a reconstructed gutter. There are original gutters and drains everywhere as well. It shows how well the Minoans architectural skills were. The water system they had encompassed bringing water to the palace, gutters for rain run off, and elimination of waste from the palace. Also Minoans are the first recorded people to use plumbing. Sounds pretty clean, doesn't it? These can be seen all over the site of Knossos.

About this time the battery finally died. I was definitely upset about that, but thankfully we had toured just about everything. It was a bummer, though, because when we got back to Heraklion we weren't able to take pictures of the Venetian part of the city, which was really pretty.

We are going to start saying we are from Australia, as advised by our receptionist. I guess Greeks think American's are rich. Our receptionist said that when she worked at a ferry port, they would change the prices when an American ferry came in! Maybe we will start to get some better deals now.

As an example, yesterday we sat next to a fountain with lions while we ate some Greek crepes (delicious, by the way). It was a lot of fun to relax after a whole day of running and walking around. We did a lot of people watching. There was a little girl who came up to us and tried to sell us a rose for two euros, but we had bought one two nights before (on mothers day) for one euro. Not to mention I asked Brandon to just start saying no, because earlier he had been giving out change to beggars. We both said no to this littler girl, but she was quite adamant saying, "Only two euro" and making very sad faces and grouping her fingers to her mouth as a sign of eating. We weren't able to get her to go away (and we were starting to feel very uncomfortable) but the owner of the restaurant we were eating at shooed her away. I watched her go up to other people (Greek people) and I definitely noticed she didn't haggle them nearly as much as she did Brandon and me. I guess it goes to show how much they believe Americans will cave. And they might not be completely far off, because they could guilt Brandon into buying things. It's a good think he has me. I didn't feel to bad about refusing the little girl, because you could definitely tell she was trying not to smile when she was trying to guilt us to buy a rose.

Today is cloudy, and a little on the cooler side. Brandon and I plan on spending our last day in Crete hanging out in Agios Nikolaos. It's a good temperature for walking around. Tomorrow we head back to Heraklion and hop on a ferry to Santorini! It almost feels like our vacation is ending, but we have so many other places to go see! I'm excited and apprehensive, because I feel pretty comfortable here. Oh well, it will be worth it.

Until Santorini!