Schisma Eloundas

We reached Crete by air in the afternoon, and, after picking up the car, drove the 70km to Schisma Eloundas and the Elounda Heights hotel.  As suggested by the name, the Hotel is up a steep hillside and has a great view. But the roads are not great.

The most direct approach road provided me with some driving challenges in an unfamiliar manual car car. How do you do a hill start on a narrow, very steep, slippery road, without a conventional hand-break (it had an electric toggle)?  It was a six speed box, with the gear stick on the wrong side (of course) and the reverse in the wrong place.  Obviously, I finally figured it out, with couple of stalls and some wheel spinning - we aren't still there.  Fortunately, the longer way up was easier - or was I just getting used to the car?  Another little driving adventure.

Elounda Heights hotel - isolated but very comfortable
Our base in the east of the island

Agios Nikolaos

From here we were able to make a day trip to Agios Nikolaos, a rather overhyped resort town.  Yet it's home to the quite new Archaeological Museum of Agios Nikolaos housing an amazing collection of finely worked Minoan: ceramic, gold and bronze objects dated back as far as 3000 BCE.  Well worth the visit

The town of Agios Nikolaos boasts a famous, 'bottomless', lake, off the harbour, surrounded, on three sides, by high rock cliffs.
The claim that the lake is bottomless is, obviously, ridiculous but it's apparently quite deep
It is also home to the Archaeological Museum of Agios Nikolaos - that is very worthwhile

Earlier in this trip, we visited the ruins of Akrotiri, (see above) an outpost of the Minoan civilisation that evolved and flourished for nearly two millennia, between 3000 and 1100 BCE.  Crete was the principal centre of this civilisation

Thus Crete possessed perhaps, the most advanced society humans had yet evolved, based on their mastery of kiln fired pottery, the essential pre-cursor to the metallic furnace with temperatures high enough to melt: tin (232^o C); bronze (913^o C) silver (979^o C); gold(1063^o C); and copper (1084^o C).  You can see some 4,000-year-old cast bronze axe heads in the photo above.

Although cast iron was being manufactured in China in the 5th century BCE and poured into molds to make ploughshares and pots as well as weapons and pagodas, it was not until Chinese blast furnace technology came west, probably thanks to the Muslim traders and the silk road, that temperatures sufficiently high to melt iron (1127 – 1204^o C) became possible in Europe. 

A model of an early waterwheel-driven blast furnace for making molten, cast-iron, a method invented in China - c 400 years BCE. 
In Europe, for another fifteen-hundred years, ironmaking still employed a Bloomery.
This slowly reduced the ore, using carbon monoxide, into soft sponge-iron, that was then forged into shape.
My photograph from National Museum of China - 2018

It would not be until the Enlightenment, beginning at the end of 17th century BCE, that technology became divorced from religion and rapid advances began to be to be made. Not just in metallurgy but notably in medicine, chemistry and electricity. No longer would a god (or gods) be the explanation for world events and processes and thus: the success; or failure; or continuation; of a physical process. Vulcan and his fellow imaginary gods were out; testable evidence was in.

Unshackled from superstition, scientific progress leapt ahead.  For example, the Eiffel Tower (completed in1889) is wrought iron (made in a puddling furnace) just 50 years later that was old-hat.  The new railways needed steel so, soon the 19th century Bessemer and puddling processes would be superseded by open-hearth steelmaking so that 20th century structures, like the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Empire State Building, became possible. As metallurgy became increasingly scientific (it was historically an arcane craft handed down from master to apprentice) progress became rapid and the list of previously impossible metals like: aluminium; titanium and tungsten became commonplace. Human capabilities expanded. Soon we could fly around the world and visit the moon.

In the 21st century new materials are added to our civilisation daily. Now, thanks to rockets and satellites, we can make video calls to our family in Germany or France for next to no cost.  All civilisation is based on how their people harness technology, from metallurgy to agriculture.

It was upon their knowledge of seafaring, ceramics and metallurgy that Minoan civilisation was built.  Yet, shackled to progress-resisting-traditions advances were slow. So, after persisting for well over a thousand years, it was a failure to keep up with developments in technology that contributed to that civilisation's demise. Around 1000 BCE under new gods, Crete was conquered by the Mycenaean Greeks who ruled briefly, until themselves engulphed by the chaos of the 'Postpalatial Bronze Age' (Early Iron Age). 

In due course, as already discussed above, the more innovative Romans would prevail in Greece and Crete, as elsewhere in the Mediterranean. They would evolve, in the Common Era, into Byzantines, before their trinitarian God would become one again, under the Ottomans, before returning to power in the 19th century.

Kritsa

Before the steam engine came the water-wheel and in the absence of a river, the wind-mill.  On our way back to Schisma Eloundas we stopped at the pretty town of Kritsa that, mysteriously, has the remains of a grain-mill in the town square and quite nice milkshakes.

Stripped down windmill at Kritsa Village, Crete and milkshake hoff.

The Palace of Knossos

The Palace of Knossos on once mighty Crete the principal centre of the Minoan civilisation circa 1700 BCE long before the rise of Greece, then the Romans and then the Christians.

The ruins were excavated by Arthur Evans in the 1920s and 30's who undertook to reconstruct elements of the Palace. This is not kosher but has proven hugely popular. Hence the colourful pillars, based on frescoes actually found. Reconstruction does make it more interesting as the crowds attest.

This is my second visit here.  I notice that several painted features are undimmed from my earlier photographs nearly 40 years ago. So, some repainting must be going on. And the walkways are new.

The Palace of Knossos c 1700 BCE 
The ruins were excavated by Arthur Evans in the 1920's and 1930's who reconstructed elements of the Palace to recall its glory.

Heraklion Archaeological Museum

This is not in chronological order. I came here on our last day in Crete. Yet, the Heraklion Archaeological Museum, contains many of the treasures found at Knossos. So, I've bought those pictures forward. 

The museum is mostly about the Minoans but has Roman and Greek objects too. It displays amazing metallurgy. And intricate craft skills. Mostly over 3,000 years old.

Heraklion Archaeological Museum has a model of the Palace of Knossos and many objects found in the ruins there
including seals and records made in Linear A script - see the box above, in Santorini
Click on a photo to see more in the album

Rethimno

After quite a long drive that included a very nice lunch at a restaurant, found by serendipity, at Gazi, we reached our next hotel in Rethimno. The most obvious feature of the Rethimno is the huge Venetian fortress commanding the seashore. It once contained many structures but is now largely empty: piles of rubble and rough grass and trees. Yet the defensive walls are in tact. 

Venetian Fortezza Castle Rethimno

This is an historic area. This building below was a church in the Venetian period then a mosque in the Ottoman period and now back to being Christian - yet the Minarette remains.

Rethimno, Crete

The Rethimno museum of Anthropology is relatively small but contains some very interesting objects including Minoan clay pipes; storage vessels; cast bronze cookware; and seals (in Linear A) It sets out the progression of local history from the Paleolithic, Minoan, Hellenistic, Roman, Venetian, Ottoman; to the modern. 

The Rethimno museum of Anthropology sets out the progression of local history
from the Paleolithic, Minoan, Hellenistic, Roman, Venetian, Ottoman; to the modern. 
Click on a photo to see more in the album

Chania

After Rethimno we continued west to Chania, an hour's drive along picturesque coastal clifftops.

As google tells us: Chania is known for its 14th-century Venetian harbor, narrow streets and waterfront restaurants. At the harbor entrance is a 16th-century lighthouse with Venetian, Egyptian and Ottoman influences.

We had accommodation in the old town, that is closed to traffic. We had a short walk up from the nearest parking area but after an initial lucky find we left town for a day trip and then had to park some distance away.

Our accommodation was in the old town - adequate and well located

With Chania as our base, the following day we drove over winding, mountainous roads, to the resort town of Palaiochora, on the south coast, passing through several towns, some no more than one or two roadside buildings. 

Voukolies

More substantial than most was Voukolies, where the traditional Greek separation of the sexes was in evidence: several coffee shops populated entirely by men, while the women supervised the children playing in the park.

Voukolies - Crete

Kandanos

This changed when we got to Kandanos, where the coffee shop proprietor was an Australian woman from Melbourne, who married a Greek man she met while on holiday here. Two adult sons assist her. The town has an interesting history. In ancient times a Roman mining town, it was a centre of resistance during WW2 and was razed by the Germans, in retaliation for the killing of 25 German soldiers - 'never to be rebuilt'. Needless to say, it was promptly rebuilt, upon Germany's defeat. The large church, in particular. 

Kandanos - razed to the ground during WW2 - 'never to be rebuilt' - yet here it is
An interesting story:  Read more...

Palaiochora

In Palaiochora evidence of Minoan occupation is slight but the ruins of a Venetian fortress dominate the point.

Palaiochora 

Again, it fell to the Ottomans. But most recently was used by the Germans during WW2, after the battle of Crete See: History.

Back in Chania

The view from our dinner table that night and the following morning, May 26,
celebrating the Greek Orthodox Divine Liturgy of the Resurrection, and remembering the Battle of Crete - in the rain.
It was fine again by midday.

Archaeological Museum of Chania

The Archaeological Museum of Chania is in the historic suburb of Chalepa, housed in a modern 'iconic building constituting a landmark for the whole city'...  'presenting the wealth of archaeological material that has been retrieved from the periphery of Chania through the course of time'.

It is indeed a fine, modern museum, a 35min walk from the old town (not unequivocally recommended). The cafeteria has a great view, looking back the way we walked.

Again, it maps the local history, from the Minoan to Mycenae/Greek; the Roman/Byzantine; to Venetian and Turkish/Ottoman; and back to Christian.

The Archaeological Museum of Chania
Among the objects are Minoan seals (previously mentioned) and Roman glassware
Click on the images to see more of the collection

Nearby there are the remains of a two storey Minoan house 220sq metres on the ground floor. With plumbing, or was it claying? They were masters of terracotta. Of course, by then they also smelted gold, lead and bronze/copper/tin but not iron, that requires much higher temperatures than they could achieve. Copper ore is found on Crete but the other ores must have been traded. Currency had not yet been invented, so they had an elaborate barter system, involving clay seals to establish value. As I mentioned earlier, writing was in Linear A, script as yet undecipherable. But AI might do it.

Heraklion

In Heraklion and I visited the Heraklion Archaeological Museum, as described above after Knossos, while Wendy explored downtown.

The following day we returned the car and flew to Thessaloniki (Thessalonica).