Corinne CrawfordWe spent some of the rainy days just wondering around the old town of Rethymno, with its Venetian port and never-ending maze of cobblestoned pedestrian streets, enjoying some meals out. We decided to book a tour day back to Heraklion to visit the most famous ruins on the island of Crete, Knossos, and the Heraklion Archaeological Museum. It was cloudy and sometimes spit out some rain but it never developed into a downpour. The tour included a bus transfer from Rethymno to Heraklion, then to the site of Knossos and then back to Rethymno. But it did not include any sort of tour guide or anything so once the bus dropped us off, we were on our own. We had 4 hours in Heraklion before getting back on the bus to go to Knossos so we decided to hit the museum first and then walk around the town. The museum blew us away. It was all items found on Crete, most from the Minoan culture and dating all the way back to 3500 BC. When I was thinking about items from 3500 BC, in my mind, I was picturing rudimentary bowls and tools and utilitarian items, but no, it was elaborate and intricate and full of design and sophistication. They had tweezers and decorated urns and ornamental jewelry that looked like it could be in one of the modern jewelry stores lining the streets in Rethymno.
We ended up spending just over two hours in the museum just in awe at the amount of items that were found and the history spanning over 5000 years just from that one island alone. It became a highlight of our trip. We didn’t have that much time left in Heraklion so we found a place for lunch before heading back to the bus to go to Knossos. After the museum, we were excited to see the actual place where many of the artifacts were found. We had discussed hiring an English speaking guide that we were told would be outside of the entrance gate waiting for groups because we now were so intrigued by the Minoan culture that we wanted some context to some of the things we were about to see but when we got there and inquired of some of the guides milling about, we got a weird scammy vibe and decided against it. Once we got inside and read some of the placards displayed throughout the very large site, we were a bit bummed to find out that most of what we saw were reconstructions or reproductions made to look like ruins. It seems that the archeologist that discovered the place decided that in order to “preserve” it, he had to add concrete to everything to reconstruct it.
Now, there is a place and time for restoration but it seemed like it wasn’t as transparent as it should be including some interior rooms that looked like they were trying to preserve some original paintings/murals on the walls only to find out that they too were reproductions. In any event, the sheer size and intricacy of the sight was impressive but it did not give us the same wow factor that the items in the museum did.
