Ancient Knossos, Crete, Greece.

Travel Date 14th July 2013

Knossos is only a few km out of town on the fringe of the suburbs and can be reached on the local inexpensive bus. I have always wanted to see it, ever since I first read about the ancient Minoans and the re-discovery of the ancient palace. 

I thought I would arrive early and avoid the crowds. I failed. The queue was very long in the hot sun. There was shade under this canopy, but it took quite a while to reach this point and even longer to reach the ticket office.

When I reached the front, after buying my ticket I repaired immediately to the nearby cafe for a cold beer. It was over 35C in the shade according to the weather report that day, and much hotter than that in the sun.

I will let the pictures tell most of the story, with a few words of explanation between them.

Arthur Evans, an English archaeologist, is responsible for the Knossos we know today. He was shown the site by a local man in 1894 and made excavation and reconstruction of parts of the palace his life's work after that. 

Unfortunately his work has led to controversy, because his reconstructions owe much to his own vision of how things were in Minoan times and many of his reconstructions have made deeper archaeological investigion of sections of the site impossible. An excellent description of Evans and Knossos history is here: Arthur Evans & the Minotaur.

 

 

Over the past ten years I have visited many ancient sites. When looking at Knossos it was hard not to compare with Mycenae, Pompeii, Rome, Petra, Jerash, Trier and Athens among others. To be honest, although I am very glad I went and I enjoyed the experience, I also have to agree with those who criticised Evans for his anachronistic attempts at reconstruction of Knossos as he imagined it. 

It is true that the use of concrete and paint make the ancient buildings easier to visualise, but the whole place took on the air of a Las Vegas version rather than the real thing. One is often left wondering how much is really as it used to be, how much is as Evans believes it was and how valid his imagining of Minoan life was.

The local tourism industry would disagree because the crowds at Knossos were greater than any I encountered at those other sites, with the possible exception of Petra. Hopefully the site will go through restoration rather than reconstruction over the next few decades.

 

 

 

There is archaeological evidence of human habitation on Crete going back nearly 10,000 years. For those interested in more details I found an excellent brief history of Cretan civilisation on this web-site: History of Minoan Crete. Knossos was built in the period known as Neopalatial around 1700-1400 BC.

Mid-way through wandering the site I sat for a while in the beautiful location imagining life for a Minoan.

 

They developed one of the most advanced civilisations of any ancient era, long before the time of Alexander. The Minoans were almost as ancient to him as he is to us.

Earlier I mentioned the early Cretan's development of indoor sanitation and water supply. I believe these pictures show part of the system. Possibly this is a section modern Cretans might benefit from studying more closely...

Their civilisation was eventually destroyed by Mother Nature when Thera exploded in volcanic fury about 1475-1450 BC with a resultant tsunami. That was followed by an invasion by Mycenaeans, a civilisation which had already embraced much of the Minoan culture through trade prior to that invasion. The Minoans never recovered from those events.

The queue waiting to see the Throne Room

Throne Room, left side

Throne Room, right side

The entry queue was even longer when I left in the afternoon. I am very pleased I saw Knossos but I left a little sad.

Cheers, Alan

The Mezquita, the Mosque–Cathedral of Córdoba, Spain

Travel Date 28th 2013. 

Let me tell you a story...

Once upon a time, long, long ago, there was a Prince of Araby who was a member of the ruling Umayyad family, who ruled almost all of Araby. His name was Abd al-Rahman and he lived in the region we now know as Syria. There was a revolt and the new rulers, from the Abbassid tribe, decided to wipe out the usurped ruling family. 

The Prince was given warning and fled from the assassins with his brother and a faithful Greek freeman. After a perilous journey, including a river crossing where the pursuers falsely persuaded his brother to return to safety, only to execute him, the Prince crossed Mesopotamia, Palestine and Egypt before finding safety in his mother's country, Libya.

 

Abd al-Rahman

source: wiki

But safety was only temporary as the Libyan ruler, who was friendly at first, started to fear the popularity of the new arrival. After several close calls Abd al-Rahman and his supporter moved on, reaching some family supporters in Morocco.

Not long before that the Visigoths of the Iberian Peninsula (the region we now know as Spain and Portugal) had lost most of their territory to the invading Arabs who arrived across the Straits of Gibraltar from Morocco. The new rulers of that region called it Al-Andalus. Although no members of Abd al-Rahman's family had ever set foot in Al-Andalus, he saw it as his to take. He was fortunate to arrive at a time when control by the Abassids was distant and weak and the local rulers were disunited; they were also having difficulty quashing internal rebellions. 

Abd al-Rahman, with a tiny band of followers, crossed into Iberia and quickly attracted new supporters. He was a brilliant charismatic leader and warrior with diplomatic and political skill. He had escaped Syria with a single supporter in 750 AD. By 757, using all those skills, he was ruler of Al-Andalus. His family ruled as his successors for over 250 years.

One of his strengths was recognition and acceptance of the many religions in his conquered land. He imposed his will on the people, but not his religion. When he arrived in Cordoba a Christian Church stood on a site which had been sacred since it was a temple to Janus in Roman times. 

He wanted to display his power to all of Araby and decided to build a great mosque. He wisely included the Christian church within the structure. Rather than confiscate the church, he bought it from the Christians.

He wanted his mosque to approach the sanctity of Mecca and to rival the great mosques of Baghdad, Damascus and Jerusalem in the East. The Mezquita took thousands of artisans decades to complete. Over the centuries there have been enlargements and additions, such as more and higher minarets. 

Centuries later the re-conquering Christians in 1236 wisely allowed the mosque to stand when it was converted back to their faith, although significant alterations were made to expand the cathedral section and more chapels were included. 

I'll let my pictures tell the rest of the story.

 

I believe Abd al-Rahman succeeded in his aim for the Mezquita. The Cathedral Mosque truly rivals the mosques of the East.

Cheers, Alan