Whilst the giant sarsen stones were being erected at Stonehenge, and the Pharaohs of the Middle Kingdom reigned in Egypt, on the large island of Crete the first palace was being constructed at Knossos, the flowering of a society we know through its wealth, its beauty and its art.

The later legends of Classical Greece told of a great King who ruled over Crete in ancient times, whose name was Minos, whose powerful navy dominated the Aegean seas and whose palace contained a maze at the heart of which lived the Minotaur; half man, half bull.

As so often, much of the legend appears to have been based in fact and there is no doubt that Crete was ruled by a powerful ruler who lived in a huge palace, and that he probably possessed a fine navy and traded far and wide. Evidence for the Minotaur is happily more tenuous, although athletic games involving leaping over giant bulls were obviously both popular and important.

The palaces of Minoan Crete were not just royal residences. They were also centres for public ritual and activities such as markets and workshops. Beyond their walls were rich villas and more modest rural farmsteads, tombs and burial chambers - today little more than ruins covered in wild flowers to the untrained eye, but an excellent reason to explore the beautiful countryside of Crete.

Our archaeological journey is in part a quest to find the facts and come to understand the people we now know as “Minoans” after their legendary ruler. It is timed to miss the crowds of summer, with the hope of late sunshine, on one of the most beautiful of the Aegean islands, and the most southerly, and arranged so as to enjoy the wonderful landscapes which Crete has to offer, including a hike down the famous Samaria Gorge.