Page 272 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Greek Islands

depicts a burial procession;
o " it can be seen in the Irákleio
Agía Triáda Archaeological Museum. Did You Know?
Αγία Τριάδα At the village of Vóri, 6 km
(4 miles) northeast of Agía The singer-songwriter
⌂ 3 km (2 miles) W of Triáda, is the Museum of Joni Mitchell lived in
Phaistos @ To Phaistos Cretan Ethnology. On display the Mátala caves with
§ 28920 91564 # 9am– are tools and materials used other hippies in the
4pm daily ¢ Main public in the everyday life of rural late 1960s.
EXPERIENCE Crete The Minoan villa of Agía Triáda Museum of served as the port for the
hols
Crete up to the mid-1900s.
was excavated from 1902 to
Cretan Ethnology
1914. An L-shaped structure,
" # Apr–Oct: 10am–6pm
it was built around 1700 BC,
ancient city-state of Gortys.
the time of the Second Palace
were carved out for use as
∑ cretanethnology
Period (p260), over earlier
museum.gr
tombs in the Roman era. Later
houses. Magnificent frescoes daily ¢ Main public hols The resort’s sand stone cliffs
used to adorn the walls of they were extended as cave
private apart ments and public dwellings for early Christians,
reception rooms. Minoan p then hippies, who lived here
treasures, like the carved in the 1960s.
stone Harvester vase, Boxer Mátala The area around Mátala has
rhyton and Chieftain cup, Μάταλα some beautiful beaches, like
were all found in this area ⌂ 70km (44 miles) W the bay of Kalí Liménes to the
and are on display at the southeast, said to have been
great Irákleio Archaeo logical of Iráklio @ the landing place of St Paul the
Museum (p258). Evidence Clustered around an idyllic Apostle on his way to Rome.
of the villa’s importance is bay, Mátala was a small fishing To the north, a track leads to
provided by the discovery of hamlet until the hippies Kommós, one of the best sandy
clay seals and tablets bearing discovered it in the 1960s. beaches on the south coast.
the undeci phered Minoan The tourist boom of the mid- A Minoan settlement just
Linear A script. 1970s transformed it into a inland is thought to have been
After the villa’s destruction pulsating resort with hotels, a port serving Phaistos (p264)
by fire in around 1400 BC, a bars and restaurants. and is under excavation.
Mycenaean megaron (hall) was Despite what its modern Boat excursions run daily
built on the site. The ruined appearance suggests, Mátala from Mátala to the Paximádia
settlement to the north, with has not been untouched by islands in the bay and to
its porticoed row of shops, history. Homer described pebbly Ágio beach, at the
dates mostly from this period, Menelaos, husband of Helen mouth of the Ágio Farago
as does the magnificent sar- of Troy, being shipwrecked gorge. There are also several
cophagus that was found in here on his way home from bus tours to the archaeo-
the cemetery to the north. The Troy. During Hellenistic times, logical sites of Agía Triáda,
paintwork on the sarcophagus in around 220 BC, Mátala Phaistos and Gortys.

Caves carved out of the cliffs
at Mátala beach, used first as
tombs and later as dwellings
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