Is Knossos worth visiting?
It is the largest Minoan palace, and walking its corridors and courtyard is the only way to grasp the scale of the place: four wings round a central court, with storerooms, shrines, workshops and the throne room. The guide to how Minoan palaces worked explains the plan, and why later Greeks may have remembered it as a labyrinth.
What disappoints some visitors is the feeling of a stage set. That comes from the reconstructions, and it is easier to enjoy the site once you know where the line runs between the Bronze Age and the 1920s.
What’s real and what’s rebuilt?
Real: the plan, the walls and the storerooms
Knossos was found in 1878 by a local man, Minos Kalokairinos, and excavated by Arthur Evans between 1900 and 1931. Most of what lies at ground level, the foundations, the walls, the paved courts, the stairs and the rows of storage jars, is ancient. The palace you walk through was built in two main phases: the first palaces from the nineteenth to the seventeenth century BCE, the second from the sixteenth to the fourteenth.
Rebuilt: the columns, the upper floors and the colour
Evans restored the palace to its present form. Between the 1900s and the 1930s, with a series of architects, he rebuilt parts of upper storeys, stairways and porticoes in reinforced concrete, and put up the tapering red columns that have become the image of Knossos; none of them is ancient. The Ministry of Culture says the interventions were largely made to protect what had been uncovered; today the Greek archaeological service only consolidates the ruins.
Copied: the frescoes
The paintings you see on the walls, from the Cup-Bearer to the Prince of the Lilies, are copies. The originals are in the Heraklion Archaeological Museum, many of them reconstructed from fragments. The guide to Minoan frescoes explains how they were made.
What to see on the site
Start at the west court, then follow the route to the central court, the heart of the palace. From there, look for the throne room, with its stone seat and benches; the reconstructed South Propylaeum with the copy of the procession painting; the grand staircase of the east wing; and the west storerooms with their huge clay jars. The palace was partly destroyed around 1450 BCE and then occupied by Mycenaeans from the mainland, whose Linear B tablets call the city “ko-no-so”. The guide to the labyrinth and the Minotaur follows the myth that grew around it.
What can you skip?
Skip the midday hours in summer, when there is little shade. Skip trying to see everything in the guidebook list of nearby buildings: the palace is the visit. And skip Knossos without the museum; on its own, it shows you only half the story.
Tickets, hours and getting there
The ticket costs €20, or €10 reduced, and is sold at the site and online on tickets.hh.gr, the Greek Ministry of Culture’s official ticket site, for a set date and entry time. The combined ticket with the museum is no longer valid. The site is open every day; from 16 October it closes at 18:00, and from 1 November at 17:00, opening at 8:30. Entry is free on 6 March, 18 April, 18 May, the last weekend of September and 28 October. From Heraklion, city bus number 2 runs to the site.
How long do you need?
About an hour and a half to two hours. Combine it with the museum on the same day: Knossos in the morning, the museum in the afternoon, or the other way round, except on Wednesdays, when the museum opens later. For a full plan, see what to see in Heraklion.
Knossos in brief
- Ticket
- €20; reduced €10
- Booking
- Timed entry: at the site or online on tickets.hh.gr; changes allowed up to 2 hours before
- Hours
- Open daily. From 16 October 8:00-18:00, last entry 17:45; from 1 November 8:30-17:00, last entry 16:45
- Free
- 6 March, 18 April, 18 May, last weekend of September, 28 October
- Time
- 1.5-2 hours
- Note
- City bus no. 2 from Heraklion. The combined ticket with the museum is no longer valid
- Verified
- October 2026, on the official site. Prices and hours change: check before you go.
Questions
Is Knossos reconstructed?
Partly. Arthur Evans restored the palace to its present form in the early twentieth century, rebuilding upper floors, stairs and columns in reinforced concrete; the walls and floors at ground level are Minoan.
Are the frescoes at Knossos real?
No, they are copies. The originals are in the Heraklion Archaeological Museum.
How do you get to Knossos from Heraklion?
By city bus number 2 from Heraklion, or by taxi.
How much is the Knossos ticket?
€20, or €10 reduced. There is no longer a combined ticket with the museum.
Sources
- Hellenic Ministry of Culture, Odysseus portal: “Knossos”, history, description and information pages (October 2026).
- Heraklion Archaeological Museum, exhibit pages for the Knossos frescoes.
