Explore Heraklion

About Heraklion

Heraklion (Iraklio) is the bustling capital of Crete — the kind of unapologetically busy Mediterranean port city that takes some getting used to but rewards lingering. The headline sight is just 5km south of the centre: the Palace of Knossos, the ceremonial centre of the Bronze Age Minoan civilisation, dating to about 1700 BC. Famously (and controversially) part-reconstructed in concrete by Sir Arthur Evans between 1900 and 1930, it's still genuinely thrilling to walk — the throne room, the bull-leaping fresco corridors, the multi-storey 'Royal Apartments' all give a real sense of what the original site felt like. The Heraklion Archaeological Museum back in town is the essential companion: the original Minoan frescoes are here, alongside the gold bee pendant, the bull's-head rhyton, and the Phaistos Disc. Walk the old Venetian walls (the city was the longest-besieged in history, holding out against the Ottomans for 21 years from 1648 to 1669), eat at the busy Lion's Square / Liontaria fountain in the centre, and end with a sunset drink at the dramatic Koules Fortress out on the harbour mole. Heraklion is also the practical base for day trips to the Lasithi Plateau, Spinalonga island, and the Cretan vineyards inland.