Are you in Heraklion? Then why is this even a question? You must do Knossos and the museum that collects the artifacts from the Knossos palace and all the other Minoan civilization sites on Crete.
The museum, renovated in 2015, holds the largest collection of items from the oldest European civilization that we know of. It's spectacular. In some ways, much more interesting and informative than the acropolis museum in Athens. The first floor has the artifacts, the second floor has the wall paintings....reconstructed based on the fragments found. You must understand we are talking about a civilization from 4,000 years ago. This is truly a unique experience.
The museum takes about an hour and should be done after visiting the Knossos Palace site. Get a joint ticket for both. It's an 18 euro bargain. Taxi between Heraklion-Knossos is max 11 euro so don't give more than that if cabbie is not using meter.
We visited the Archaeological Museum during a short stop of our cruise ship. The museum itself was nice and had some interesting artifacts; however, I felt that it was mostly a lot of the same. If you really enjoy pottery, this is the museum for you. However, if you prefer a bit more variety, it might be better to pass. I enjoyed it enough and we didn't have many other choices, but I probably would not go again given the choice.
The Heraklion Archaeological Museum is located in the center of the city . It is one of the largest and most important in Greece .
The M.span on a period starting several thousand years ago , through the Minoan , post Minoan and later periods , classic Hellenic and Roman sculptures , jewelry , wall-painting and pottery .
The fascinating exhibition spread on twenty rooms . Thirteen on the ground floor and seven on the first floor . The ground floor deals with Minoan collection of sculpture , jewelry , pottery etc . The first floor mainly with Greek and Roman collection .
The visitor can enjoy looking at findings that came from different periods of time and from different parts of Crete .
Treasures found on the KNOSSOS palace hold an important place in this M.
## it is a good idea to " hide " from high temperatures during the summer months and visit the A/C Museum .... BUT as it is a very popular attraction , it is better to come on early hours .
Admission : 6 euro - combined with the Knossos = 10 euro.
There is an outside coffee shop under old trees that serve refreshment and ice cream!!
Wonderful place to rest after the long walk !!
Only one remark : We did not find possibilities to sit and rest in the rooms ..... in the ground floor . There were some chairs for the " supervisors " but they forget that in " our time " during the day arrive a lot of Senior visitors that need to rest in order to be able to continue visiting the museum !!
If you visit the Palace of Knossos this museum is a must to see all the artifacts they have found there and the surrounding area. Plus it great to wander around in the Airconditioning!! You can get a ticket to combine the museum and palace at a cheaper rate!
Visited this museum after Knossos Palace and it helped the palace to really come alive. The museum offered a great selection of items, mostly collected from the Knossos site and neighbouring regions.
We didn't opt for the guided tour as we prefer to wonder by ourselves and take our time. Every item had an adequate information in English and there were also members of staff to help if needed.
Overall a very good value for money as we paid 16 Eur per person for a combined ticket to Knossos+Museum at the Knossos entrance. (Knossos on its own was 15 Eur per person).
