Archaeological sites and hippie caves in Crete - Festos, Górtys and Mátala

પ્રકાશિત: 16.04.2024

We drove through the mountains from the north of the island to the south. The road from Heraklion to the south was well developed, so we could drive comfortably, without any precipices or hairpin bends.


Agia Triada

First we drove to Agía Triáda, the so-called royal villa, which is located 2 kilometers from the large archaeological site of Festós.


Agia Triada

Unfortunately, neither the guidebook nor the internet mentioned that it was closed on Tuesdays, so we found ourselves standing in front of a fence and a locked gate.


Agia Triada

So we took a look at the not so small excavation site from the outside.


Agia Triada
Next we headed for the Festós archaeological site, which is open today. On the way we were slowed down a bit because there was a rider in front of us on the narrow road.


Rider on the road

This is the second most important Minoan palace in Crete after Knossos and is said to have been founded by the legendary King Minos.


Outlook at Festos

Most of the buildings visible today date from 1700 to 1450 BC.


Festos

Then the facility was destroyed by fire.


Festos

In this palace was also found the “Disk of Festos”, which we had already seen in the Archaeological Museum of Heraklion.


Festos

Our journey took us further to the coast to Mátala.


Matala

In early Christian times, caves were dug into the rock walls of the harbor bay and served as graves.
Matala
In the 1960s, these caves found another use: Mátala became famous because of the hippies who lived in them.


Matala

Today you can climb the rocks to the caves (for a fee) and we wondered how anyone could find it desirable to live here. The caves were very small and looked like ancient tombs...


Matala

But of course you have a beautiful view.


Matala

We walked through the town to a hiking trail that was supposed to lead to the “red beach”.


Hike to Red Beach

Unfortunately, we had to go over a mountain to get there, so we went up first.


Hike to Red Beach

Once at the top, we enjoyed the beautiful view and decided to take our picnic break here.


View of Red Beach

It would have been just as far down to get to the beach (and therefore up again on the way back), so we decided that the view of the beach from above was enough for us.


Matala

Back in Mátala we took a short breather in the central square.


Coffee break in Mátala

Renovations were going on all over town. Many bars and hotels weren't open yet, but there was construction noise and the smell of paint everywhere.


Matala

On the way back we made a small detour to get to ancient Górtys.


Gortys

It was the most important ancient city of Crete and the island's capital under Roman rule.


Odeon Gortys


The apostle Paul is said to have appointed Titus as bishop here. Under him the island was Christianized. The impressive remains of the Titus Basilica from the 6th century still lie on the excavation site.


Titus Basilica Gortys

In the Roman Odeon from the 1st century BC, 12 Greek tablets of the city law of Górtys are still preserved.


Górtys Tablets of the Law

On the opposite side of the road there is a freely accessible excavation site, but all we could see were lots of piles of stones.


Gortys

However, these were very picturesquely situated between old olive trees.


Gortys

Our last day of vacation came to an end with the return trip to the hotel and the next day we had to exchange the Greek sun for the North German rain.
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