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Matala-Phaestus |
Description:
Matala with its beautiful beach and the echo from its hippie charm, the amazing and inaccessible beaches in the south, the impressive palace of Phaestus, the “royal mansion” of Agia Triada, the Roman Greek and Byzantine Gortyn and the small, well-conceived ethnological museum at the village Voroi, all these are reasons to visit the rich Mesara plain.
The unique caves at Matala, you can visit them until 03:30pm when the archeological site closes.
The “mattresses” of the hippies carved in the rock are none other than the shelves on which the dead were laid in the Roman area.
Matala was the port of Phaestus in the Minoan period and of Gortyn in Roman times. The ancient city now lies beneath the waves. If you go diving you won’t have difficulty in finding it, if nothing else you are bound to see one of the many jars and vases on the sea bed, reminder of one of the many shipwrecks.
Phaestus, the palace of Radamanthus, on the summit of a hill, still looks down over the huge Mesara Plain. It is here that the enigmatic Phaestus disk was discovered as well as numerous Linear A tablets and dedicates ceramic vessels. As we walk through the open, stone-paved courtyards, climb the steps of the monumental stair-ways and examine the various buildings we understand the full grandeur of Minoan architecture.
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