Roman Columns

Today I drove south and visited the Minoan Palace at Phaistos. A beautiful site, high up on a hill, overlooking the plain. Odd to think that when the Minoans were enjoying running water, central heating, and lavish theatre we were living in the close quarters of sites like Skara Brae.

Later I stopped off at the Roman city of Gortys (or Gortyn or Gortyna - everywhere in Crete has a least three different names, all similar but different enough to cause confusion!). Gortys is famous for it's Law Code, and beautiful Odeum. I was impressed by both, but the real surprise for me was the size of the site. In it's day, Gortys was home to 300, 000 souls - by comparison Edinburgh has a population of 487, 500. It's massive, and there's a lot of it left. I had to go exploring in an olive grove to find the Praetorium, Temple of Apollo and one of the public baths. These columns are in the Praetorium.

I got bitten to bits in the olive grove, tramping through the undergrowth in search of an aqueduct - the information leaflet was sadly lacking in information but it definitely promised an aqueduct!  

I loved this site, despite the local wildlife making a meal of me, made me think I need to visit Rome, sooner rather than later.