Matala Day Trip

A Matala day trip is a visit to the village of Matala on the south coast of Crete. It is one of the Greece tours that join old caves, Minoan sites and the wide Messara plain.

What is a Matala day trip?

A Matala day trip is a visit to Matala, a village that belongs to the community of Pitsidia. Here, community means a small area run locally. This one lies inside the Tympaki municipal unit, which is a larger area of local government.

In the Minoan period, Phaistos used Matala as its port. A port is a place where ships load and unload goods. The Minoans were an ancient civilization, which means a large, organized society from long ago. The port story is a good starting point for a Matala day trip.

The Gortynians, the people of Gortys, took control of Matala in the year 220 BC. BC means before year one of the common calendar. In Roman times, the era of ancient Rome, Matala became the port of the city of Gortys. Each change adds to the story behind a Matala day trip.

Legend links the Roman general Brutus to a Matala cave called Brutospeliana. A general leads an army, and a cave is a hollow space in rock. Myth says Zeus, as a white bull, carried Europa across the sea to Matala beach. A legend or myth is an old tale handed down over time.

• Fishing past: Matala was a fishing village, which means people there caught fish from the sea.
• Cave years: Hippies, young people who chose a free, simple life, lived in the Matala caves during the 1960s.
• Festival: The three-day Matala Beach Festival celebrates the village’s hippie history every June.

The climate of Matala is the hot-summer Mediterranean type. Climate is the weather pattern of a place across the year. Matala sees very dry, hot summers, while its winters stay very mild and wet. This pattern is worth knowing before planning a Matala day trip.

What do the caves add to a Matala day trip?

A Matala day trip comes with an old question about the village caves. A cave is a hollow space in rock. One suggestion says the caves served as tombs at an earlier time. A tomb is a spot for burying the dead.

A second idea looks at the size of the caves. Their large volume makes living spaces a stronger match than tombs. Living spaces are rooms for daily life. Volume here means the amount of room inside. This debate shows why a Matala day trip raises questions about how the caves were really used.

The caves also carry a story from the past. An old story handed on through the years is called a legend. One legend says the Roman general Brutus frequented the cave named Brutospeliana. Roman means from ancient Rome, and a general leads an army. That tale gives a Matala day trip one more thing to talk about.

The village also marks its past with a modern event. The three-day Matala Beach Festival celebrates the hippie history of the village. That history refers to the years when hippies lived there. The festival has taken place every June since 2011. A Matala day trip therefore touches a history that the village still celebrates.

• Stay: Joni Mitchell spent weeks living in the village of Matala in early 1970.
• Cave community: The song “Carey” came from her time with a cave-dwelling hippie community at Matala.
• Lyrics: Words in “Carey” point to the open-air hippie lifestyle and to Matala.

One last detail ties the music to the village itself. Mitchell’s first version of “Carey” was written in Matala for Cary Raditz’s 24th birthday. A first version is an early draft, written before the song took its final form.

What does Gortyn add to a Matala day trip?

A Matala day trip links to Gortyn, an ancient city on the island of Crete. Gortyn extended its power to Matala in the 2nd century, after the city of Phaistos was destroyed. That link puts Gortyn firmly in the story of the whole area.

Gortyn lies 45 km from Heraklion, the capital of Crete. The site sits in the Messara valley, which is low land between higher ground. It stands south of the Psiloritis mountain and near the Libyan Sea. These details help anyone planning a Matala day trip find Gortyn on a map.

Gortyn allied with the Romans, the people of ancient Rome. That alliance meant it avoided the disaster that struck other Cretan cities in 68 BC. From the 4th century, it was the capital of a separate province of Crete. The word province means a region governed as a unit in its own right.

The Praetorium was the heart of Roman Gortyn. It was built in the 1st century AD. This building was the seat, or official base, of the Roman Governor of Crete. A governor is an official who leads a region for a state. Roman rule forms one layer of a Matala day trip story.

• Theater: The Roman theater has two entrances and a half-circular orchestra, the flat floor before the stage.
• Temple: Gortyn had a temple of Egyptian gods, with worship statues of Isis, Serapis and Anubis.
• Odeon: The Gortyn Code was found at the Odeon, a structure built by the Roman emperor Trajan.

A copy of the Gortyn Code was returned to Athens. It now sits in the Greek Bouli, the parliament of Greece. This link joins ancient Crete to the Greek capital of today. Gortyn therefore adds that long record to a Matala day trip.

What does Phaistos add to a Matala day trip?

A Matala day trip gains real depth with Phaistos, an ancient settlement first inhabited around 3600 BCE. BCE means before the common era, a way of counting years back from year one. That date is only slightly later than early sites such as Knossos.

The first palace at Phaistos went up around 2000 BCE. A palace is a large, grand building, and the Minoans, an ancient people of Crete, built this one. Archaeologists study the past through the buildings and objects people left behind. They call that time the Middle Minoan IB period.

Phaistos itself stood on two hills. The palace sat on the hill in the east, while an acropolis crowned the hill in the west. On raised ground, an acropolis forms the top section of an ancient town. That layout adds a clear picture of the ancient place to a Matala day trip.

Ship captain Thomas Spratt located Phaistos in 1853 while surveying sites around the Mediterranean. Surveying means measuring land and sites to make maps. Spratt used the positions of Gortyn, Matala and the coast to place the Phaistos hill. That makes Matala part of the way Phaistos was located, which suits a Matala day trip.

• Rebuilds: During about three centuries, the first palace was wrecked and built again three times.
• Temple: Inside the palace, a temple to Rhea was found; temples are buildings where people worship.
• Excavation: Federico Halbherr, working with his student Luigi Pernier, excavated, or carefully dug up, Phaistos from 1900 to 1904.

Around the end of the 3rd century BCE, the Gortynians, who were the people of Gortyn, destroyed Phaistos. That event rounds off a story that runs from first settlement to destruction. Every stage adds history to a Matala day trip.

What does Agia Triada add to a Matala day trip?

A Matala day trip can add Agia Triada, also spelled Hagia Triada, a site of the Minoan civilization. Minoan means belonging to the early society of the island of Crete. The site was not a ruler’s palace but an upscale town, home to a local administration center.

Hagia Triada sits in south central Crete, between 30 and 40 meters above sea level. The site is noted for its monumental buildings, especially the large Royal Villa. Monumental means built on a very large scale. That scale is the first thing to know about Hagia Triada before a Matala day trip.

Archaeologists, scholars of the past who work by digging, found about 150 Linear A tablets at the site. Linear A is a Minoan script, a set of written signs. That is the largest cache, a stored group of finds, at any Minoan site. Three large storage magazines, meaning storerooms, also point to trade.

An Italian team led by Federico Halbherr and Luigi Pernier dug Hagia Triada from 1902 to 1908. A dig means searching the ground with care for old objects and the remains of buildings. That early dig is part of the story a Matala day trip to Hagia Triada can tell.

• Stone coffin: This sarcophagus, unearthed in 1903, is the only limestone one of its era found to date.
• Small finds: Examples are a bronze cauldron, meaning a big pot, and 16 copper ingots, meaning metal bars.
• Stone cup: The Chieftain Cup is a drinking chalice of serpentine stone, 11.5 centimetres high and 9.9 centimetres across.

Fresco paintings, which are paintings made on plaster, cover the four sides of the sarcophagus. The painted scenes show funeral rituals, the ceremonies held for the dead. With such finds, Hagia Triada gives a Matala day trip a clear Minoan chapter.

What does the Messara Plain add to a Matala day trip?

A Matala day trip adds the Messara Plain to the wider picture of the region. The Messara is an alluvial plain in southern Crete. Alluvial means land built from soil and silt that flowing water carried down and slowly left behind.

The Messara Plain is easy to describe by its size. A plain is a wide area of flat, open land. Its length is about 50 km west to east, and its width is 7 km north to south. Readers planning a Matala day trip learn that Messara is the largest plain on the island of Crete.

The Messara Plain has also grown over time. Sediment is earth and rock in tiny pieces that water carries and drops. Sediment build-up has pushed the plain outward by up to 6 km since 1500 BC. Near the middle of the plain stand the ruins of Gortys, an ancient city.

Clay is soft earth that people shape by hand and bake until it hardens. Clay from the plain is the source of significant amounts of Minoan pottery. Minoan means from the ancient civilization of Crete, a large and organised society. That ancient pottery adds background to a Matala day trip.

• Crops: Olive trees, vineyards and horticultural crops, which means garden plants, are grown on the plain.
• Export: Olive oil from the plain is exported, which means sold abroad, to European markets.
• Home sales: Crops from the plain are also sold on the domestic market, meaning buyers inside the same country.

The Messara Plain is also home to the indigenous Messara horse. Indigenous means that the animal is native to the area and was not brought in from elsewhere. Together, these facts describe the Messara Plain for anyone who reads about a Matala day trip.

What does Kommos add to a Matala day trip?

A Matala day trip can add Kommos, an ancient harbour town of the Minoans. The Minoans lived on Crete in the Bronze Age, when tools were made of bronze. In their time, Kommos served as the port for the nearby sites Phaistos and Hagia Triada.

Archaeologists study the past through what people left. They first took notice of Kommos in 1924, when Arthur Evans visited the site. The building Evans took for a customs house turned out to be an ordinary residence. A customs house is where goods are checked. Kommos gives a Matala day trip a discovery story.

Excavations at Kommos began in 1976 under the direction of Joseph Shaw. Excavation means a slow, planned dig that exposes buried remains. In places, sand four metres deep covered the site before digging started. Excavators kept a box labeled “The Strange and Wonderful” for finds whose styles were unfamiliar to them.

Kommos has yielded more evidence of trade through imported ceramics than any other Bronze Age Aegean site. Ceramics are goods made of baked clay. The Aegean is the sea between Greece and Turkey. For a Matala day trip, that trade record makes Kommos stand out among Bronze Age sites.

• Building P: Its open side faces the sea, and it is standardly interpreted as an early ship shed.
• Abandonment: Kommos was abandoned around 1200 BC and never reoccupied on the same scale.
• Greek poem: Robin Lane Fox speculates the Odyssey phrase “a small rock holds back the great waves” refers to Kommos.

Faience is a glazed ceramic, and the Phoenicians were an ancient trading people. Imported faience figurines of Egyptian gods Sekhmet and Nefertum were found around a Phoenician shrine with three pillars. Such objects add another chapter to a Matala day trip.

What does Agia Galini add to a Matala day trip?

A Matala day trip gains extra background from the village of Agia Galini on Crete. The village lies on the island of Crete, Greece, inside the regional unit of Rethymno. A regional unit is a local government area, much like a county in other countries.

In Minoan times, the village was a city called Soulia or Soulina. Minoan means belonging to the early society of ancient Crete. Ancient Syvritos used the city as its port. A port is a harbour town. That past gives a Matala day trip a deeper layer of Cretan history to consider.

The village sits at the far southeastern end of Rethymno regional unit, facing the Libyan Sea. It also lies at the edge of the Heraklion prefecture. A prefecture is an older Greek term for a government area. These map points fix the village in place for readers weighing a Matala day trip.

On an east-facing rocky edge, the village takes the form of an amphitheatre. An amphitheatre is a curved space with rising rows of seats for an audience. Overlooking the beach, the Panagia, a Byzantine church, stands in the cemetery of Agia Galini. Byzantine describes the Greek Christian empire of the Middle Ages.

• Size: The community of Agia Galini covers 11.812 square kilometres and has a recorded population of 646.
• Distance: Agia Galini is about 55 km from Rethymno and 68 km from Heraklion.
• Name: One belief says the name comes from “Aei Galini”, meaning “ever peace”, for the calm harbour.

Greek Orthodox tradition says St. Galini was martyred in Corinth in the 3rd century AD. Martyred means put to death for religious faith. Such tradition rounds out the background that surrounds a Matala day trip in this part of Crete.

What does the Libyan Sea add to a Matala day trip?

A Matala day trip adds the Libyan Sea, which is the water off the south coast of Crete. The Asterousia Mountains are a range in southern Crete. They separate that sea from the Messara Plain, which is an area of flat land.

The Messara Plain is the largest plain in Crete. It is about 50 km long when measured from west to east. The Geropotamos river flows west across this plain. It empties into the Libyan Sea near Tympaki. A Matala day trip is easier to place on a map once these names are clear.

The Geropotamos river also has a drainage area of 553 square kilometres. A drainage area is all the land where rain runs toward the same river. Every small stream and slope inside that area feeds the same river. A larger drainage area means that the river collects water from more land.

Cape Lithinon is the southernmost point of Crete, lying south of Matala. On the Bay of Mesara, the cape closes off the southeastern side. It rises to about 390 metres and drops steeply into the water to the south. For a Matala day trip, this cape is a southern landmark on the map.

• Papadoplaka: This natural islet sits on a reef, a ridge near the sea surface.
• Minoan times: Lower sea levels made Papadoplaka bigger in the age of Crete’s ancient Minoans.
• Four islets: A bay on Crete’s south coast holds Papadoplaka, Megalonisi, Mikronisi and Trafos.

Megalonisi is an uninhabited islet in the Libyan Sea off southern Crete. Uninhabited means that nobody lives on it. It also carries a lighthouse. For a Matala day trip, this islet adds one more name to the map of the south coast.

What does Minoan civilization add to a Matala day trip?

A Matala day trip gains background from Minoan civilization, the ancient culture of the island of Crete. Its palaces were large royal buildings. The ruins of the Minoan palaces at Knossos and Phaistos have now become popular tourist attractions.

Experts sort Minoan history by pottery styles, which means the changing looks of clay pots. These styles divide the story into three major periods, called Early, Middle and Late Minoan. Those three names help a Matala day trip place each ruin on a timeline of the island’s past.

Archaeologist Nikolaos Platon, a scholar who studies ancient remains, split Minoan history another way. His four periods are Prepalatial, Protopalatial, Neopalatial and Postpalatial. Each name refers to palaces, and the starting word parts mean before, first, new and after. His system gives a Matala day trip a second set of names for the same history.

Palaces did not appear from nothing. Monumental buildings, meaning very large structures, were built at sites that later became Minoan palaces. The early palaces had a square-within-a-square layout, with one square shape set inside another square. Later renovations added more internal divisions and corridors, which are rooms and passages inside the palace building.

• Phaistos: The palace there appears to line up with Mount Ida along a straight north-south line.
• Hagia Triada: This site, near Phaistos, has yielded the largest number of Linear A tablets, which carry ancient writing.
• Kommos: This was the harbour town that served Phaistos and Hagia Triada.

The phase called Late Minoan IB ended with severe destructions throughout the island. That damage ended Neopalatial society. At Knossos, the town burned while the palace itself did not. Such an ending completes the long Minoan story that a Matala day trip draws on.

What does the Asterousia Mountains add to a Matala day trip?

A Matala day trip gains context from the Asterousia Mountains of southern Crete. This range separates the Messara Plain, a wide area of flat land, from the Libyan Sea. A historical name for the range is the Kofinos Range, after its highest peak, Kofinas.

Excavations, which are careful digs that expose old remains, have taken place inside the Asterousia range. They turned up evidence of ancient Cretan cultures, meaning the early groups of people who lived on Crete. For a Matala day trip, this gives the mountains a place in the story of ancient Crete.

The Phaistos palace was apparently designed to give views over both the Messara Plain and the mountains. A palace is a very large building where a ruler lived and ran the region. Anyone planning a Matala day trip can note the land seems to have been part of the design.

Kapetaniana is a village found on the Asterousia range, along its southern slope. It stands on the mountain slopes at a height of 750 m. Its position has views of the Libyan Sea and the Messara Plain. A Matala day trip plan can use Kapetaniana as a fixed point on the map.

• Old church: Kapetaniana’s monastery church, the Church of Panagia, was built around 1400.
• Village revival: Kapetaniana was revived in 2007 and bases its local economy on ecotourism, or nature-friendly travel.
• Waterfall: The Ambas waterfall in the Asterousia range drops 145 meters.

Birds of prey form Europe’s largest island-based population on the cliffs of the greater Asterousia region. Birds of prey are birds that hunt other animals for food. That adds a story about wildlife and nature to the human history of the range.

What does the Heraklion Archaeological Museum add to a Matala day trip?

A Matala day trip gains background from the Heraklion Archaeological Museum and its ancient finds. Crete’s political situation after 1878 helped keep Cretan finds on the island during a crucial period of discoveries. Archaeological describes the study of ancient remains dug from the ground.

Two archaeologists, Iosif Hatzidakis and Stefanos Xanthoudidis, pushed for a dedicated museum building. Dedicated means made for one clear job, here a home for the collection. Construction of the building ran from 1904 to 1912. Through that story, readers of a Matala day trip see the island of Crete in a broader light.

In 1926, 1930 and 1935 earthquakes brought the museum building close to collapse. Museum director Spyridon Marinatos worked to find funds and win support for a new solid building. A new wing was added to the museum in 1964. These events form part of the background to a Matala day trip.

Architect Patroklos Karantinos lit the galleries with skylights above and along the top of the walls. Skylights are windows set into a roof to let in daylight. Veined, multi-coloured marbles inside the building recall Minoan wall-paintings, which imitate a marble facing. Minoan means belonging to the ancient society that lived on Crete.

• Town Mosaic: This name belongs to glazed plaques of Minoan houses, which are flat shiny tiles.
• Rhyton: The collection includes a rock crystal rhyton, an ancient container for pouring liquids.
• Clay dancers: The collection holds a clay sculpture of dancers with a lyre player, a stringed instrument.

A Roman Catholic monastery named Saint-Francis once occupied the site where the present museum stands. Monks live in a monastery, and Roman Catholic names a branch of the Christian church. This layered past gives a Matala day trip extra context.

What does Zaros add to a Matala day trip?

A Matala day trip can add Zaros, a village that belongs to the Heraklion regional unit of Crete. Zaros is also a former municipality, meaning a local council area. A regional unit is a larger government district of Greece, like a county in other countries.

Readers planning a Matala day trip can start with the official facts. Since the 2011 local government reform, Zaros has been a municipal unit of Faistos. Each municipal unit works as a local government area. The Zaros municipal unit covers 71.803 square kilometres. Zaros is listed with a population of 2,565 as of 2021.

Food makes a strong topic for any Matala day trip that includes Zaros. Local people produce olive oil, sultanas, vegetables and spring water. Olive oil is pressed from olives, and sultanas are dried grapes. A couple of tavernas in Zaros serve trout. Tavernas are traditional Greek restaurants, and trout is a freshwater fish.

Water mills give another reason to name Zaros in a Matala day trip plan. A water mill uses flowing water to turn a wheel. That wheel then drives stones that grind grain into flour. Traditional water mills near Zaros village have been working since the 16th century, which means the 1500s.

• Rouvas Gorge: This narrow, steep-sided valley lies close to Zaros on the E4 European Walking Path hiking route.
• Vrontisi Monastery: This home of monks sits on the south slopes of Mount Ida, 550 metres above sea level.
• The Sea Eagle: In this novel, a long made-up story, a barber in Zaros befriends and shaves three escapees.

Zaros lies 44 km from Heraklion, at the southern foothills of Mount Psiloritis. Foothills are the lower ground along the bottom edge of a mountain. Those map facts let readers place Zaros correctly on the island of Crete and in its wider region.

What does the Phaistos Disc add to a Matala day trip?

A Matala day trip can add the story of the Phaistos Disc, a clay disc from Crete. The disc bears text in an unknown script and an unknown language. A script is a system of written signs used to record a spoken language.

Italian archaeologist Luigi Pernier recovered the intact disc on 3 July. An archaeologist is a scientist who studies the past through objects that earlier people left behind. Intact means the disc was whole and unbroken when Pernier found it. Travelers planning a Matala day trip can read about this find before they set out.

The disc is about 16 cm across and almost 2 cm thick, with rounded edges. Side A is slightly concave, which means it curves inward like a shallow bowl. Side B is convex, so it curves outward like an upturned bowl. Counting repeats, side A carries 123 signs and side B carries 119.

On each side, a continuous spiral line separates successive turns of the text. A radial stroke with five punched dots marks the presumed start of the text at the edge. Presumed means assumed, but not proven. For a Matala day trip, these marks give a clear way to picture the whole disc.

• Signs: The disc carries 45 distinct signs, which occur 242 times in total.
• Numbering: Sir Arthur Evans numbered the 45 symbols from 01 to 45.
• Plumed head: The plumed (feathered) head sign, number 02, appears 19 times, the highest count of any sign.

One more detail concerns the basement cells. The basement cells, reachable only from above, were neatly covered with a layer of fine plaster. Cells are small, closed rooms. These plain facts make the disc an easy topic to share on a Matala day trip.

What questions come up about a Matala day trip?

A Matala day trip needs four answers: airport, season, regional unit and municipality. The airport is Heraklion’s Nikos Kazantzakis Airport. Climate comes from modelled averages for Matala, worked out by computer. The regional unit is Heraklion, and the municipality is Faistos.

Which airport serves a Matala day trip?

Heraklion’s Nikos Kazantzakis Airport is shared. Civil, meaning non-military, flights and military aircraft use the same site. A four-engined aircraft made its first landing there in 1954. An extension was completed on 30 March 2018. It was ready in time for the high season, the busiest travel period.

Which season suits a Matala day trip?

Modelled climate averages for Matala over 1971-2000 give a mean daily high of 19.93 °C in April. A mean daily high is the average of each day’s warmest temperature. The same averages give 30.10 °C in July. Average rainfall in October is 34.72 mm.

Which regional unit holds a Matala day trip?

Greece treats each regional unit as an administrative area. The Heraklion regional unit spans 2,641 square kilometres in total. The unit counted 305,490 residents in 2011. The unit’s capital is the city of Heraklion, and the unit carries the same name.

Which municipality holds a Matala day trip?

Inside a regional unit, a municipality serves as a local government area. The seat of Faistos municipality, the village where its administration sits, is Moires. Faistos municipality counted 23,921 residents in 2021. Three former municipalities merged into a single one in 2011 to form it.