Zakros

About Zakros

One of the most picturesque villages of Crete, Zakros is located 19,5km from Palekastro. It has 1050 inhabitants, farmers, producing mainly olive oil. Kato Zakros is a small coastal village, site of the fourth large Minoan Palace, located 7,5km from Zakros at the bay of the same name.Within a few distance from the village of Zakros, starts the Gorge, which ends at the bay of Kato Zakros, almost near the Palace area. This gorge is of outstanding beauty, with large caves in its walls.
In those caves were discovered tombs from the Minoan period, and finds of great archaeological importance. That is the reason why the caves are named "The Caves of Deads" and the gorge "The Gorge of Deads. In Kato Zakros 1961 a great Greek archaeoligist N.Platon unearthed the fourth largest Minoan Palace.
Nowadays in Kato Zakros live a few people, occuping with farming, and fishing. There are some taverns and bars available for the visitors.

Zakros Palace
Zakros Palace in Crete is one of the latest vestiges of the ancient Minoan civilization that was unearthed in our time. Zakros Palace is the last of the Minoan Palaces that has come into light as a whole. The site of this Minoan palace is situated on Crete’s eastern coast, in the region of Zakros, just south of Palaikastro, another interesting Minoan settlement.

Of the four Minoan palaces to be discovered by archaeologists – the others being Malia, Phaistos and, of course, Knossos – the palace of Zakros is the smallest. The palace itself covered an extension of 4,500 square meters and crowned a flourishing urban centre with an area of over 8,000 square metres as a whole. However Zakros Palace is only a fifth of the size of Knossos, the latter being the largest of the Minoan palaces in Crete and the centre of the Minoan civilization in general.

The first excavations in the area occupied by Zakros Palace were done in the early 1900s. They were headed by David George Hogarth, an archaeologist and scholar who worked with the British School of Archaeology in Athens. Hogarth’s digs yielded about 10 Late Minoan houses and other valuable findings such as pottery, bronze tools and spurs of mail exchange dating back to the prehistorical era, yet the Second World War discontinued his project.

The ruins of Zakros Palace emerged when work at the site was resumed by renowned Greek archaeologist Nikolaos Platon in 1961. Much of what is known about Zakros Palace is due to Platon’s work. The excavations at Kato Zakros continue until today.

See
In those caves were discovered tombs from the Minoan period, and finds of great archaeological importance. That is the reason why the caves are named "The Caves of Deads" and the gorge "The Gorge of Deads".

Eat
Nowadays in Kato Zakros live a few people, occuping with farming, and fishing. There are some taverns and bars available for the visitors.