Crete-Discover the Unknown Crete

crumbled and the few survivors withdrew
to the promontory of Kastri overlooking
the bay.
The city came to life again during the
Late Minoan period, and was still inhabited
in the Greek era when a great sanctuary
dedicated to Zeus was erected at some time
during the eighth to sixth centuries B.C.
When the archaeologists of the British school
in Athens arrived, the temple appeared to
have been completely demolished, and yet
among its ruins it concealed some important
archaeological remains including a frieze
representing a chariot, and a terracotta lion,
The peak
sanctuaries of
Petsofas and Modi,
with their stark
conical profiles,
were sacred to the
ancient population
of Palaekastro and
were places of
worship up until
the Roman period
Every afternoon
the fishing boats
leave the small
harbour of
Palaekastro
but above all here there was discovered a
stele carved with the famous "Hymn to Zeus
Kouros", to Zeus the youth, the perfect image
of the idealized hero, sung by the Kouretes
and by the men who worshipped the "divine
Zeus, native of Crete".
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