Archanes controlled the fertile valley south of Knossos, and it was rich. Its Minoan sites are spread around the village rather than in one place.

The palace

Arthur Evans believed there had been a summer palace of the kings of Knossos here, but he never found it. Yannis Sakellarakis proved him right in 1964, when he uncovered a palace complex in the Tourkogeitonia neighbourhood of the village.

What has come to light so far includes the core of the building, a theatre area, an archive of Linear A tablets, shrines, a monumental entrance, living quarters, cisterns and a water system. Parts of it are still under modern houses.

The cemetery at Fourni

Fourni, on a low ridge outside the village, was in use for more than a thousand years — from about 2400 to 1200 BC. It is one of the most complete prehistoric cemeteries known anywhere in the Aegean.

You can walk to it from the village along the old Minoan path, starting near the old primary school.

Anemospilia

At the northern end of Mount Juktas stands a small two-storey building of the seventeenth century BC, destroyed by an earthquake a few decades after it was built.

Four rooms have been excavated. What was found inside them — the position of the skeletons and the objects with them — led the excavators, supported by anthropologists and forensic scientists, to conclude that a human sacrifice was taking place when the building collapsed. This remains one of the most discussed finds in Minoan archaeology.

Vathypetro

South of the village, the Minoan house at Vathypetro is large enough that some call it a small palace. It contains one of the oldest known wine presses in Crete, from around 1600 BC, and an olive press beside it.

The village that rebuilt itself

The Archanes a visitor sees today is the result of work that began in 1992. Old houses were restored rather than replaced, and painted in strong colours — deep blue, ochre, dark red. The electricity cables were buried, which is rare in Greece and which is why photographs of the village have no wires across them.

In October 2000 the village won first prize in a European Union competition for integrated and sustainable development of excellent quality, and the University of Crete gave it an environmental award the following year.

A small archaeological museum on the square holds finds from the Minoan sites nearby, and a restored olive-oil factory in Tourkogeitonia shows how oil was made before machines.

Mount Juktas rises to 811 metres directly above the village. Seen from the north it has the profile of a face lying on its back, and in antiquity people said it was the tomb of Zeus.

Near the summit are the remains of the Minoan peak sanctuary, the most important one on Crete. At the very top stands the chapel of Afentis Christos, with a view across the whole Heraklion plain on one side and towards the south coast on the other.

Marked paths connect the village with the summit, the peak sanctuary and Anemospilia, and a second path descends the eastern side of the mountain back to the ring road. The walking is best in spring and autumn.

Archanes has given its name to two protected designations of origin: one for wine and one for olive oil.

PDO Archanes wine is red and dry, made by blending two Cretan grapes — Kotsifali, which gives light colour, strong aromas and high alcohol, and Mandilaria, which is dark, tannic and sharper. Together they make a balanced wine with flavours of ripe dark fruit and dried herbs. The zone is small: only three wineries make it.

The link between this valley and wine is very old. The press at Vathypetro was working three and a half thousand years ago.

PDO Archanes olive oil comes from the same ground, in a zone that runs from just south of Knossos down to Vathypetro.

Around the square you will find the standard Cretan dishes — dakos, kalitsounia, slow-cooked lamb and goat — and the ingredients come from close by.