Phaestos Archaeological Site

View from the archaeological site of Phaestos, Crete.

Phaestos, aka Phaistos, was the second most-important Minoan palace-city after Knossos  and enjoys an awesome setting with panoramic views of the fertile Messara Plain and Mt. Psiloritis. It was inhabited from the Neolithic period until the foundation and development of the Minoan palaces in the 15th century B.C.  In contrast to Knossos, it had fewer frescoes, as its walls were likely covered with white gypsum. The Minoan city covered a considerable area around the palatial center. After the destruction of the palace in the 15th century, the city continued to be inhabited in the Mycenaean and Geometric periods, until the 8th century B.C. was defeated by Gortyna in the 2nd century BC. 

​Phaestos is 63km southwest of Heraklion and served by bus twice daily (7.30am and 12.45pm, €7.10, 1½ hours), three times daily from Matala (€2, 30, minutes) and six times daily from Agia Galini (€2.30, 35 - 45 minutes).
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According to mythology, Phaestos was the seat of king Radamanthis, brother of king Minos. It was also the city that gave birth to the great  Epimenidis, one of the seven wise men of the ancient world.

Excavations by archaeologists have unearthed ruins of the Neolithic times (3,000 B.C.).
During the Minoan times, Phaestos was a very important city-state. Its dominion, at its peak, stretched from cape Lithinon to cape Psychion (today cape Melissa at Agios Pavlos, South Rethymnon) and included the Paximadia islands. Phaestos had two ports, Matala and Kommos. The city participated in the Trojan war and later became one of the most important city-states of the Dorian period. Phaestos continued to flourish during Archaic, Classical and Hellenistic times. It was destroyed by the Gortynians during the 3rd century B.C. In spite of that, Phaestos continued to exist during the Roman period.

​The most important monuments of the site are the old and new palaces, built of ashlar blocks and spread on many different terraces, having access through the large staircases of the monumental propylon. Around the central peristyle court are the royal quarters, the storerooms, a lustral basin, and several workshops. 

​Although many inscriptions were found by the archaeologists, they are all in Linear A code which is still not deciphered, and all we know about the site, even its name, are based in the ancient writers and findings from Knossos.

The Disc of Phaestos, side B, as photographed by By Gleb Simonov.

The Phaestos Disc, is a disc 16 cm (6.3 in) in diameter of fired clay covered on each side with a spiral text, consisting of a total of 241 occurrences of 45 distinct signs created by pressing individual sign stamps onto the soft clay before firing, discovered in 1908 during the excavation of the palace, dated from the middle or late Minoan Bronze Age (second millennium BC). Its purpose and its original place of manufacture remain disputed. It is now on display at the archaeological museum of Heraklion. ​

View from the Messara plain around the archaeological site of Phaestos, Crete.

View from the archaeological site of Phaestos, Crete.