It was a wonderful day all around today. The temperature was in the low 80s and there was a wonderful breeze. Still managed to get a bit of a sunburn though. We had another tour with Panos, this time to the South. Gortyn was our first stop. It was a small archaeological site that is still being worked on today. We even saw someone taking an impression on the ancient Minoan ideograms (I can't remember if they were linear A or B. A has yet to be deciphered). Then we went to the ruins at Phaistoso. There were 2 palaces that were built in that location. One went North to South the other went East to West. (I can't remember which direction was first and which was built after the first was destroyed). There are more remains left from the 2nd palace that was built. It was high up. There was an earthquake that was devastating and destroyed the first palace. They immediately built the 2nd. It was here that the famous Phaistos Disc was found. It was made of clay circa 1600bc. It bears symbols on both sides in a spiral. These are characters of the earliest writing in Europe, the Minoan ideograms. Fascinating! The last stop was Matala. It was right on the coast. GORGEOUS but holy moly, it was windy! White caps out as far as we could see! When we walked onto the beach the sand stung our legs as the wind whipped it by us. Built into the sandstone near the coast were caves that people used to live in.
A photo stop....gorgeousBit windy for pics....
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