Greeting Greece: Crete

The next day, our ship stopped in Crete. We walked off, negotiated with a taxi driver for a quick 2 hour tour of his city, then took off. He took us to Knossos, the ancient civilization of the Minoans, which dates to 2700-1450 BC.

I could not resist photographing the color of these pomegranates.

Here are some of the ruins of Knossos. It was surrounded by beautiful mountains. The ruins were in wonderful shape and building structures easy to detect.

Much of the public baths reminded me of the ruins in Turkey.

Support beams have been added, but the rocks remain from thousands of years, earthquakes, and invaders.

While Turkey generally leaves its frescoes and original ruins alone (and even lets the goats and sheep crawl all over them!), Greece seems to work toward restoring to the original design. Fragments of this piece were found, then they crafted around it what the original would have been. You can see the Egyptian design, which has helped them date this civilization.

Many things were grown on the mountainside. I think some of it was tea. It was beautiful!

I found this mineral-rich rock.

These storage jars were found. It was impossible at the angle from which we viewed them to get the size orientation, but they were so big I could have climbed inside. But I didn't. Have I mentioned I like plenty of space around me?

This was the queen's chamber. Historians have said these people mainly worshipped goddesses and that it was a matriarchal society. Dating it alongside our biblical history, I kept thinking of our intentional God and his many warnings against idol worship like the peoples around them. It becomes more relevant how He insisted that His people be separate from the others.

This was the crowning find, the Knossos bull, restored to its original color and texture by historians.

It was a quick tour, but I am glad I got to see it!