Phaistos and Malia: the Minoan palaces beyond Knossos

The short answer

Phaistos and Malia are the two Minoan palace sites that come next after Knossos. Hellenic Heritage, the heritage platform operated by the Hellenic Organization of Cultural Resources Development (ODAP), calls the palace of Phaistos "second in size only to that of Knossos" and Malia the third largest Minoan palace in Crete, after Knossos and Phaistos.[2][1] Visit Greece says both were included on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2025 as part of the Minoan Palatial Centres, together with Knossos, Zakros, Zominthos and Kydonia.[8]

They are different visits from Knossos and from each other. Phaistos is a hill-top palace above the Messara plain in southern Crete, with a long later history; Malia is a palace and town near the north coast, where the surrounding town and cemeteries are central to what the Ministry of Culture describes.[4][3][1] For the palace at Knossos and the museum that holds its finds, see Knossos or the Heraklion Archaeological Museum; for the civilisation itself, Minoan and Mycenaean explained.

Phaistos: a palace above the Messara

Hellenic Heritage describes Phaistos as the second most important town of ancient Crete, built on a low hill overlooking the fertile Messara plain.[1] The Ministry of Culture's Odysseus page calls it the most wealthy and powerful city in southern Crete.[3]

Hellenic Heritage dates the start of the Minoan period there to the middle of the third millennium BC and the palace to around 1900 BC; like Knossos, it says, the palace was devastated by an earthquake in 1700 BC and replaced by an even grander one.[1] Phaistos outlived the palaces. Both official pages say the town continued into the Hellenistic period and fell to neighbouring Gortyn (Gortyna) in the second century BC; Hellenic Heritage gives the year as 160 BC.[3] Hellenic Heritage names an archaic temple of Rhea and Hellenistic buildings among the ruins besides the palace.[1]

The Ministry's page describes old and new palaces built of ashlar blocks on different terraces, with royal quarters, storerooms, a lustral basin and workshops opening onto a central court, and a monumental propylon and large staircases linking the terraces. Parts of the Minoan and later town have been located at Chalara and Aghia Photeini.[3]

Phaistos's excavation history runs through the Italian Archaeological School at Athens. According to the Ministry of Culture, F. Halbherr began the investigation in 1884, and the Italian School continued it under Halbherr and L. Pernier from 1900 to 1904 and under Doro Levi from 1950 to 1971. The same page says the Phaistos Disc, a clay disc probably of the 17th century BC, was found at the palace.[3]

Malia: a palace, a town and a cemetery

Hellenic Heritage says the ancient name of the town at Malia is still unknown, and that legend placed King Sarpedon there before his brother Minos ousted him. Its page distinguishes the archaeological site from the modern town of Malia.[2]

The Ministry's page gives the fuller sequence: a first palace around 2000 to 1900 BC, destroyed around 1700 BC and rebuilt in 1650 BC on the same plan, then destroyed around 1450 BC along with the other Minoan palatial centres, with a short reoccupation in the 14th to 13th centuries BC. Most of the ruins visible today, it says, belong to the New Palace.[4]

What the Ministry describes at Malia goes well beyond the palace. Its page names the west court crossed by raised "processional ways", the central court, the Loggia and pillar crypt of the west wing, a grand staircase, the stone "kernos", and eight circular grain silos. Around the palace it describes the town, with an agora and a "hypostyle crypt" interpreted as a council chamber, and sector M, about 3,000 square metres, which it calls the most important settlement of the First Palace period in Crete. The First Palace cemetery, near the north coast, includes the burial complex of Chrysolakkos, which the Ministry says yielded the gold bee pendant.[4]

Excavation at Malia passed from Chatzidakis to the French. The Ministry's page says Joseph (Iosif) Chatzidakis started a trial excavation on the hill called Azymo in 1915, and that the French School of Archaeology at Athens took over from Chatzidakis and continues to dig, with intervals, at the palace, the town and the coastal cemeteries, publishing in the series "Etudes Cretoises" since 1928.[4]

How they differ from Knossos as visits

Three differences matter for a visitor, in XTOUR's reading of these pages.

What you are looking at. Hellenic Heritage says Arthur Evans carried out extensive architectural and decorative restoration at Knossos, which many consider controversial.[5] Neither Hellenic Heritage nor the Ministry of Culture describes anything comparable at Phaistos or Malia.[4][2][3][1] XTOUR does not know how much consolidation or restoration either site has had; it knows only that the official pages do not present one as rebuilt.

Where the famous objects are. The two objects the official pages single out are on display in Heraklion. Hellenic Heritage's Heraklion Archaeological Museum page names the gold ornament from Chrysolakkos in Malia, two bees with a drop of honey, and the Disc of Phaistos among the museum's exhibits.[6] The Ministry adds that some finds from Malia are in the museum at Agios Nikolaos.[4]

What else the site tells you. Phaistos carries a later story, from the temple of Rhea to its Hellenistic houses and its conquest by Gortyn.[3][1] Malia's emphasis, in the Ministry's account, is on the town and cemeteries around the palace.[4]

Directions and the places around them

Both Hellenic Heritage pages give directions from the city of Heraklion, by intercity bus and by car.[2][1] XTOUR has no destination in either site's municipality, and its records give neither palace a base, Heraklion included; it does not repeat the travel times, because it has no routing data of its own. Phaistos's postal address is in the Messara and Malia's in Malia.[2][1]

Hellenic Heritage's Phaistos page links to its pages for Gortys, the Royal Villa at Agia Triada, which it calls the summer residence of the king of Phaistos, the Archaeological Museum of Messara and Matala.[1] Those links are Hellenic Heritage's; XTOUR does not suggest combining any of them in one day.

Tickets and site notices

Hellenic Heritage sells tickets for both sites through its ticket store, which calls itself the official one, and its pages for Phaistos and Malia set the same terms. Those pages say timed entry is required, that a ticket is valid for a single entry on the date and time chosen, that it can be changed up to two hours before the visit, no more than twice, and that tickets are non-refundable. Visitors with reduced or free tickets must show valid ID or documentation, the same pages say.[10][9]

The Ministry's pages show that these sites can close at short notice. On 9 October 2026 both still carried a notice from the Ephorate of Antiquities of Heraklion that they would be closed from midday to late afternoon on 22 July 2026 because of high temperatures.[3] The Malia page also kept a notice that the site would be closed from 15 October 2025 to 31 March 2026 for work on the monument.[4] Hellenic Heritage posts visitor notices for Cretan sites on its announcements page; XTOUR does not track them.[7] How those notices work is explained in what Greek archaeological site opening depends on.

Where the official pages disagree

Hellenic Heritage and the Ministry of Culture tell Malia's excavation story differently. Hellenic Heritage says the ancient town was discovered in 1915 "thanks to the systematic excavations" of Iosif Chatzidakis.[2] The Ministry's page says Chatzidakis started a trial excavation in 1915, uncovering the southern half of the palace's west wing and the tombs by the sea, then stopped, and that the French School resumed the work.[4]

They also differ on the earlier gold finds. Hellenic Heritage dates the discovery of gold sheet fragments in the area to 1880.[2] The Ministry says the English admiral Th. Spratt, who travelled in Crete in the middle of the 19th century, reported gold sheets found at a place called "Helleniko Livadi". And Hellenic Heritage gives Malia's palace one building date, 1900 BC, and does not mention a second palace, where the Ministry describes a first palace of about 2000 to 1900 BC, destroyed around 1700 BC and rebuilt in 1650 BC.[2][4]

For visiting, the two publish different summer opening hours for Malia, and the Ministry's summer schedule is labelled with 2020 dates.[4][2] XTOUR does not choose between them; check the operator before you go.

What XTOUR does not tell you

XTOUR does not publish prices, opening hours, closing days, travel times or accessibility for Phaistos or Malia, and it does not rank them against Knossos. Hellenic Heritage's site pages publish hours and ticket prices.[2][1] XTOUR has no place page for Malia, and its Phaistos record is not yet published.