Kato Zakros

Kato Zakros is the smallest of the Minoan palaces built in the 16th century BC and destroyed around 1470. 100 of its rooms have been discovered till nowadays, including a rare underground pool. The edifice is original as it was never rebuilt. Among the finds, there is a treasury with bronze and stone objects, ivory jewels, and a particularly rare rhyton of mountain crystal. There also used to be a bronze smelting furnace and a kitchen with a dining room (which was really unusual for Minoan palaces). The ruins of the port town that can be accessed on a paved road can be found under the surface of the sea, while the archaeological finds and the remains of the palace are located about 100 m from the Kato Zakros Beach and resort of the same name.

Above the uncovered remains of the palace, it is the Valley of the Dead which finished there - here in the rock hollows, the Minoans buried the dead.

Jak do Kato Zakros

From Palekastro in the east of Crete, drive to the south. After about 17 km, you will arrive at the village of Zakros from where there are two ways to get to Kato Zakros one of them is a new tarmac road and the other is an unpaved one (The Old Way to Kato Zakros). Both roads are about 8 km long. Another possibility is to walk through the Valley of the Dead leading directly to the Kato Zakros archaeological site, or you can drive from Zakros 8 more kilometres up to the sea - the Kato Zakros resort - the archaeological finds of the palace can be found about 100 m from the coast.