Sightseeing in Crete

Sightseeing in Crete starts with Knossos, and it is worth knowing what you are looking at before you go. The palace was the centre of Europe's first literate civilisation, occupied from around 1900 BC, and what stands today is partly Arthur Evans's concrete reconstruction from the 1900s — controversial, but it does let you read the throne room and the great staircase as spaces rather than foundations. Go at opening or after four; the site has almost no shade and the coaches arrive at ten.

Twenty minutes away, the Heraklion Archaeological Museum holds what Knossos gave up: the bull-leaping fresco, the snake goddesses, the Phaistos Disc that nobody has read. Doing the two in one day is the standard sightseeing tour in Crete, and it works — the museum makes sense of the site and the site makes sense of the museum.

The rest of the island is Venetian and Ottoman rather than Minoan. Chania has the best-preserved old town in Greece: a Venetian harbour with a lighthouse, an Egyptian-built minaret, and lanes that were still Jewish, Turkish and Greek quarters a century ago. Rethymno has the Fortezza and a smaller version of the same mix. Further out, Spinalonga — the island fortress that served as a leper colony until 1957 — is reached by boat from Elounda, and the Arkadi Monastery holds the story every Cretan will tell you about the 1866 uprising.