Crete's pre-classical Minoan culture is one of the main reasons to visit the island, and this palace, in a beautiful site just southeast of Iraklio, is the most magnificent, intricate, and evocative of Crete's Minoan sites. Seat of the legendary

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Crete's pre-classical Minoan culture is one of the main reasons to visit the island, and this palace, in a beautiful site just southeast of Iraklio, is the most magnificent, intricate, and evocative of Crete's Minoan sites. Seat of the legendary Cretan king Minos, parts of the palace have been reconstructed to their former glory, with large columns painted deep brown-red with gold trim, drainage systems, light wells, porches, verandas, clay tubs, grand double doors, a megaron decorated with frescoes of dolphins, and the oldest throne in Europe. The vast ruins convey the nobility that informed ancient Minoan culture. Linked to the myth of the Labyrinth and the Minotaur, the site was continuously inhabited from the Neolithic period (7,000-3,000 B.C.) until Roman times.

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