Iráklion fell to the Arabs in 824 AD. The Arabs fortified the town with a moat, known in Arabic as Khandak. The town eventually became known as a variation of this name, Candia. The Venetians strengthened the fortifications of the city, incasing it with thick, impregnable walls. Many of their great buildings where inside of this wall.When the Turks finally lay siege to the city, the siege lasted for twenty two years! Under the Turks the name of the city became Megalo Kastro (Big Castle in Greek) where "they plugned (Iráklion) into the darkness of slavery." (Palaska-Papastathi, 2002?)

    The city became incorporated into the Greek state in 1913 and the capital of Crete was moved back from Chania to here in 1971.

    Iráklion is a large, modern, cosmopolitan city. Many of the Venetian remains have been destroyed and I am fairly sure that all of the Turkish ones have, aside from a fountain and bath in the center of the old city. The Venetian castle is interesting, and the Logia (meeting palace) is impressive. You can see the remains of St. Titus (neither of my pictures of the church he is in came out) meet for coffee at the famous Morosini fountain and mingle with Greeks. All of those things you can see with in an hour. There are, in my mind, two reasons for going to Iráklion. To see the museum, which until recently held the monopoly on Minoan artifacts, and to see Knossos. If you get an early enough start you can do both of those things in 1 day and move on somewhere else (hint:west or south west). I chose 2 days so I could have a nice swim at Amnossos, a nice bay near by.

I hope you enjoy the photos. Any comments, please E-mail me, .