Kamilari Tholos Minoan Tomb, Ancient City of Gortyn and Minoan Knossos
The day started with a search for a Minoan tholos (circular) tomb that we had read was on the edge of the valley above Matala Bay. We found it!! And the roads and tracks through the olive groves were wonderful (our standsards are now very low LOL). We had to make the last leg on foot and up a steep hill - but it was worth it! There was a little signage up there and from what we had read in a book; the tomb is Minoan and dates to 2000 BC, findings from the tomb and its outer rooms date from every hundred years after for some time (1900 bc, 1800 bc, 1700 bc). The exterior rooms were added over the centuries of honoring ancestors and bringing them libations - cups of wine and oil and water. We will see some of these things at the museum in Heraklion tomorrow.
Next we visited the site of ancient Gortyn, famous for having an inscribed law code from 700-650 BC. Also famous as a capital Roman city in later times and a site that honors the work of Titus on Crete. We went exploring for other ruins that we had read were outside of the archeological park. We could have spent days! A huge temple complex to Apollo, A large odeion, nymphaeum … HUGE area being excavated.
Our last site on Crete was the Minoan palace of Knossos. A very polished site and a major tourist attraction (we needed some smooth walking paths at this point!). The oldest paved road in Europe is Minoan and can be found here. 1500 BC. Mind boggling!
We had dinner in downtown Heraklion and enjoyed the people watching! Tomorrow we will go to the Heraklion Archeological museum and then an afternoon flight to Syracuse Sicily where Paul’s ship put in on the way from Malta to Italy.
God Bless! PB & Margery, Scott and Shelly
2000 BC Minoan Tholos (circular) Tomb at Kamilari, Crete
