Crete in Pictures: 42 Free Photos of Knossos, Matala and Spinalonga
Crete in 42 free photos: the palace of the Minoans, Europe’s first great civilisation, a beach below a cliff full of caves, and an island fortress with a sad past.
How to download: click a photo to see it large, then use Download. The originals are about 1200 × 800 pixels: right for blog posts, slides, social media, school projects and video call backgrounds.
Knossos, Matala and Spinalonga
The palace of Knossos, near Heraklion, was the centre of Minoan Crete some 3,500 years ago: a maze of courts, stairs, store rooms with giant pithoi and the Throne Room. Arthur Evans, who dug it up in the early 1900s, rebuilt parts in concrete and painted copies of the frescoes, so the red columns and the charging bull help you picture the palace. On the south coast, the sandstone cliff of Matala is full of caves cut as tombs in Roman times and made famous by the hippies of the 1960s. In the east, the Venetian fortress of Spinalonga guards the bay of Elounda; it served as a leper colony until 1957.
More free photos
- Athens pictures
- Thessaloniki and Kavala pictures
- Natural wonders of Greece
- Free beach pictures
- Free rock and cliff pictures
Questions about these photos
Can I use these Crete pictures for free?
Yes, for personal and commercial projects. All we ask is a link back to BigFoto.com; the box at the top of the page has a credit link you can copy.
How do you get to Knossos?
Knossos is 5 km south of Heraklion; city buses run there from the centre and the port. Go early, and see the original frescoes in the Heraklion Archaeological Museum.
