It is incredible just how much is here. It’s a warm day in late August, and the Knossos Palace archaeological site is rapidly getting crowded, even before 10am, thanks to a large cruise ship in port in nearby Heraklion, Crete. I do my best to stay away from the tour groups, winding up doing a reverse loop of the most common path. On the way, it becomes apparent just how impressive the site is. That would be true even if one disregarded the age of the place, approaching 3800 years! Knossos was – we think – the largest and most important site of a spectacularly advanced Bronze Age civilization here on Crete: the Minoans.

For a culture that emerged prior to 2000 BCE, the fact that we know anything about the Minoans is itself a feat. That knowledge comes from two main sources: classical Greek (roughly 1000 years after the collapse of Minoan society) texts and mythology, and modern archaeology around a few major sites like Knossos, thought to be palace complexes with a surrounding city. What we lack is contemporaneous source material. The Minoans did have writing systems, two actually, Cretan hieroglyph and what is called Linear A. (Linear B would be a proto-Greek, with syllabic symbols rather than a true alphabet, and would be developed here as well, but part of post-Minoan culture when the area fell under Mycenaean influence and the cultures combined. Much more on that timeline later.) Unfortunately, neither language has been able to be translated to date, and is unlikely to be given survival rates of clay tablets, let alone papyrus, from the Bronze Age. So much of what we know is conjecture based on similar cultures, like the Mycenaeans themselves, for whom we have more true knowledge basis.

Here is what we do know. The Minoan culture on Crete emerged somewhere in the third millennium BCE. By 1900 BCE, they had established reasonably large central administrative areas, like here at Knossos, although as a whole they would almost all be rebuilt around 1700 BCE. The period from 1700 to 1350 BCE is known as the neopalatial period, and is the Minoan golden age. The Minoans established wide ranging trade throughout the eastern Mediterranean basin during this period, with artifacts from here found as far as Egypt and the Levant, and vise versa.

Cities were based around large palaces, with the biggest and most impressive being here at Knossos. These palaces seem to have combined administrative function with religious – as evidenced by truly spectacular wall paintings – although all we really know about the Minoan religion is that it was goddess-based and focused on sacred bulls (for sacrifice). These bulls and the shape of their horns were also used in decoration, and even in sports, with bull-jumping (matador sorts of athletes would literally jump over charging bulls) being a popular subject for art.

Beyond that, knowledge is limited. We don’t know what governmental system the Minoans used, or if there was a central system at all as opposed to cities being their own entities. We know little of the religious pantheon beyond what is referred to as “The Great Goddess.” And most importantly, we don’t know what led to the collapse of the civilization and the abandonment of all of the sites beyond Knossos in roughly 1350 BCE. (Following this, Knossos would exist as a hybrid Mycenaean-Minoan center until roughly 1100 BCE in what is called the monopalatial period. The end of that is the beginning of the Greek dark ages, which last until pre-Classical times.)

That’s all a long way of saying that, even though signage here at Knossos is good, and even though restoration of some portions to how it is believed to have looked is awesome, anything regarding actual usage of a space is pure speculation. But it doesn’t take away from the amazing scale of the site.

Knossos Palace as it currently is dates basically to 1700 BCE, although some portions are a bit older than that. It is assumed that the complex is, in fact, a palace, although it might not be what we would think of as a royal residence. Certainly the building is ornate, as decorations and paintings adorning the stonework would attest. But was it the home of a Minoan king? That part is unknown.

The Minoan architectural style seen here is the highlight, and when one considers the date, it is truly remarkable. Buildings are done in stone, with a wide array of types depending on what was able to be sourced, from limestone to coral and even gypsum. (The gypsum was the first to deteriorate, detaching from the mortar around it and causing instability in the structures.) Stone pillars hold up some portions of the structures, while remains of wooden pillars have been found in areas not load-bearing, so it is assumed those were decorative. Wooden frames would have reinforced the majority of doorways, though those, too, have long since deteriorated, so most excavations encountered totally collapsed passages. (Stonework in reconstructions has been painted to mimic the wood, but the stone is necessary to have the site be safe for wandering.)

Knossos Palace would have had four gates, basically corresponding to the compass points, and would have been surrounded by a full city, though the ruins today are just the palace complex. Those gates, and many of the other buildings, would have been lined by either stone or wooden columns depending on what was needed for stability. Those, in turn, would have been painted in bright colors, with a sort of coral red being the most commonly imagined based on wall paintings that somehow survived the millennia. (The paintings here now are replicas; the originals are in the Heraklion Archaeology Museum, which we will talk about in a bit.)

The most impressive aspect of Knossos Palace is its height: a full six stories from bottom to top, although its place on a hill helps with that a bit, meaning few floors cover the entire footprint. At its center was a vast plaza – with some of the original concrete still in place – and a central atrium staircase that descended a full three floors, lined by ornate wooden columns for decoration. It is an incredible engineering feat for the Bronze Age.

Getting to Knossos from Heraklion couldn’t be easier, meaning that unless you really want a guided tour, booking a group with transportation is unnecessary. A single city bus, the 2, takes you from Heraklion’s center – right at the archaeology museum – to the entrance of Knossos. (It is a different numbered line back along the same route.) Tickets are €1.60 each way and can be bought at a minimart near the bus stops.

Expect to take anywhere from 90 minutes to three hours at Knossos Palace, depending on pace, crowds, and whether one wants to find and read every sign. Lines might be long for a couple of fully restored rooms one can peek into, like the Throne Room or the Queen’s Chambers. (Again remember that these uses are speculative based on decor, furnishings (like a marble “throne”), and imagination.)

As the bus takes you directly back to the Heraklion Archaeological Museum, many visitors decide to do the two as a single full day. And indeed the museum is the mandatory second half of learning about the Minoan civilization.

The museum is able to be explored fully in under two hours, so don’t worry if your time in Heraklion is limited. (That said, it’s a cool city and my week and a half here was not enough for my taste!) It is well organized, basically chronologically and then by category, with signage in both Greek and English. And oh, what a cool collection!

While there are items that date back to Neolithic times and on through Hellenistic and into Roman Crete, the focus is on the Minoan palace-cities and other objects from that era (1900-1100 BCE or so). One of the easy highlights is a room dedicated to Kamares Vessels, the highest quality Minoan pottery that was sought all over the known world.

Rooms go into different aspects of Minoan culture as we know them. One explores the religion, with a focus on goddess sculptures (the ones with snakes are amazing) and bull iconography. Another room discusses sports like bull jumping, and shows off vases carved with imagery of boxing. And yet another room talks about burial rituals.

Upstairs, one finds the wall paintings. (Note: as of this writing, the remainder of the second level besides this room is closed.) A few are somewhat intact enough for me to really see what they would have been – like a bull I remember from Knossos – but most are fragments with modern archaeologists and art historians filling in the remainder based on, I’m guessing, contemporaneous artworks and best guesses. Some seem to make easy sense; others seem to be true reaches. Regardless, it is a fascinating exercise to try to determine what can be seen from the actual original pieces.

But if you only truly pay attention to one thing at the museum following your visit to Knossos, it will be the scale wooden model of what the palace is thought to have looked like fully complete. It is a fun game for me to try to identify places I saw, matching my photos on my phone with the location in the model.

As someone who grew up in the United States, world history was basically a quick jaunt through ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome, before moving to the more modern era. And even with Greece being a focal point, that really only pertained to Classical Athens. The existence of other civilizations in other parts of the world, or even at other times in these, was left unsaid at best, and assumed to be missing at worst. So coming to Heraklion and getting to visit a Bronze Age Minoan palace complex is such a treat, filling in just a tiny portion of my knowledge gap from my America-centric education.

There is no way to visit Knossos, and the Heraklion Archaeology Museum, and not come away vastly impressed by the sophistication of the Minoan civilization. More than a thousand years before Classical Athens, and more than 1500 years before the might of Rome, the Minoans were building things that few other civilizations could have done. And some of it survived the millennia and can be seen now! That is such an exciting thing to experience and to learn about, and just one more reason to visit the island of Crete.

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