Phaistos (Festos), Crete Island

2 more images

Agίa Triáda lies on a hill about 3km from Festόs (as you pass the car park of Festόs take the next right turn (sign posted) you will reach the end of the road and see the large brown sign. The site is below you to the left.

Said to be the Summer Palace of Festόs royalty due to the elaborate decoration’s found on the walls and it’s position overlooking the bay of Mésaras. In Minoan times the sea would have been much nearer. Some of the more exquisite Minoan works of art in Iráklio’s Archaeological Museum were found here. I found the water works here particularly interesting. You can see were the water was drained from the top of the site and channelled via aqueducts around the Palace.

Also on the site is the small church of Agios Georgios Galatas from the 14c ad

The name Agίa Triáda comes from a nearby Byzantine chapel as there is no record of the Minoan name.

Entry is €3 You can purchase a ticket here that covers Festόs as well for €6

3 more images

Set high on a hill Festόs certainly is impressive both for its ancient architecture and the views. Unlike Knossόs Festόs has not been reconstructed but on taking a few minutes and with the help of a guide book and map you can soon work out which bit is what and you will realise just how impressive this site really is. It is no wonder it is on most lists as the number one place to visit on Crete

Admission €4 open 09:00 to 19:00

You should visit Agίa Triáda first as you can buy a ticket there covering both sites for €6 something that was not offered at Festόs.

Next to the archeological site of Festos you can find what we think is one of the best places on Crete: the terrace! With a great view over the area, shade from trees and a cool wind, this is a magnificent place after a hot day in Matala and/or Gortys. It's selfservice so you can stay all day if you want, without having to order every half an hour or so. We sat and read our books (Nikos Kazantzakis: Christ Recrucified and Louis de Bernieres: Captain Corelli's Mandoline) for a few hours in the afternoon.

This terrace was actually more impressive to us than the archeological site itself (after already visiting Knossos). There is an Italian archeological school right next to it, on the top of the hill, and I even considered studying archeology, just to be able to live in this place for a year or so...

Near to matala is the ancient minoan site of the palace of phaestos. A fascinating place with views all round of the mesara plain. The famous phaestos disc was found here and the real thing can be viewed at the archaeology museum in heraklion. The hieroglyphic script on the disc has never been deciphered and the meaning remains a mystery to this day.

Phaistos is located 62 km south of Iraklion. It was the second biggest city of the Minoan Crete and it is built on a hill, at an altitude of 100 m from sea level, in the fertile valley of Messara.
According to mythology, Phaistos was the seat of king Radamanthis, brother of king Minos. It was also the city that gave birth to the great wise man and soothsayer Epimenidis, one of the seven wise men of the ancient world.
Excavations by archaeologists have unearthed ruins of the Neolithic times (3.000 B.C.).
During the Minoan times, Phaistos was a very important city-state. The city participated to the Trojan war and later became one of the most important cities-states of the Dorian period.
Phaistos continued to flourish during Archaic, Classical and Hellenistic times. It was destroyed by the Gortynians during the 3rd century B.C. In spite of that, Phaistos continued to exist during the Roman period.

Regular public transportation is available from Iraklion and Rethimnon.

The countryside around Festos is gorgeous. I don't know what it will be like in the height of summer, but when we visited in late spring it was a mass of green fields, trees and flowers. The flowers especially were really lovely, covering whole hillsides in a carpet of yellow and white.

As with Knossos there are loads of almost completely undamaged jars, thanks to the Minoan's habit of storing them in underground chambers. These stopped the jars from getting too much damage in the later years and apparently when they were discovered some still contained honey, olive oil and so on. I imagine it was quite rancid by then though!

Unlike Knossos, Festos has had very little reconstruction work done. Also, guides are not so plentiful as they are at Knossos and the site is left very much to your own imagination. A guide book or map will help, but even then it's hard to work out what is what. It's still a lovely site though, and quite large. Best of all it's set in really spectacular countryside.