Knosos /Heraklion archaeological museum tour

Knossos

Knossos (also Cnossos Ancient Greek: Κνωσός) is the largest Bronze Age archaeological site on Crete and has been called Europe's oldest city.

Settled as early as the Neolithic period, the name Knossos survives from ancient Greek references to the major city of Crete. The palace of Knossos eventually became the ceremonial and political centre of the Minoan civilization and culture. The palace was abandoned at some unknown time at the end of the Late Bronze Age, c. 1380–1100 BC the reason is unknown, but one of the many disasters that befell the palace is generally put forward.

In the First Palace Period (around 2000 BC), the urban area reached a size of as many as 18,000 people.

Heraklion Archaeological Museum

The Heraklion Archaeological Museum is a museum located in Heraklion on Crete. It is one of the greatest museums in Greece and the best in the world for Minoan art, as it contains by far the most important and complete collection of artefacts of the Minoan civilization of Crete. It is normally referred to scholarship in English as "AMH" (for "Archaeological Museum of Heraklion"), a form still sometimes used by the museum in itself.
The bull leaper (c.1500 BC), an ivory figurine from the palace of Knossos.

The museum holds the great majority of the finds from Knossos and other Minoan sites in Crete.