Patty & Phil in SantoriniMarders in Greece: Day 6 Crete & Santorini
Our ship docked in Crete in the port city of Heraklion (named after Hercules). Crete is the southern most island of Greece and is quite close northern Africa. We boarded a motor coach for our morning tour of the ancient city ruins of Knossos. More than 4,000 years ago a new people arrived on this island who were most likely from northern Africa. These people are now called the Minoans. While the artifacts of these ruins were first discovered in 1878, it wasn't until 1900 when the British man, Arthur Evans excavated this ancient palace. The legend of the leader of this area, King Minos however proceeded the excavation. Minos, a son of Zeus and Europa, was thought to be a wise and peaceful king. The Minoans were not "Greek" in the present sense as they had dark complexions and arrived here long before the Macedonians. The first palace on this site dates back to 1900 BC and a second place was built on the earthquake-made ruins lasted until around 1350 BC. We strolled through the ruins as our guide described what we were seeing. The palace was built using many short, winding hallways that lead to the mythological story of a labyrinth. From recovered frescos, it was discovered that the Minoans had a sport of jumping over live bulls' horns. From these two tales arose the mythological creature, the minotaur which was thought to be half bull and half man. It was believed that the bull lived within the labyrinth and ate human flesh. Archeologists learned from studying these ruins that the Minoans were an advanced civilization. They had a complete plumbing and sewage system built within this palace (we saw the pipes!). We continued to stroll through the ruins and observed that it was built on the side of a large hill. Off in the distance we observed high mountains with large amounts of snow still showing on their peaks. After about and hour, we re-boarded our motor coach and headed back to our ship after a very brief stop in downtown Heraklion. The ship pulled away from the dock at noon for a four hour sail to our finale port of call, Santorini. At around 4 PM, our ship arrived near the island of Santorini. This island was the most extraordinary geography that we visited so far. The island of Santorini partially imploded in 1450 BC when a huge volcano erupted. The result of this is shear cliff landscapes that defy description. We left the cruise ship via tenders and then proceeded to take a cable lift to the top cliffs of the island. Others chose to use donkeys. Views from the top were awe inspiring making this the most famous of all the Greek Islands. We strolled the island and Patty purchased a print from a local artist. We stopped and had a refreshment at a roof top restaurant that gave us a view of the volcanic hill on the island of Santorini before returning to our ship via tender.
To see the photos from this section click: HERE
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