Tuesday, March 2, 2010

A Minoan Villa and a Venetian Aqueduct

There are several palaces and villas from the Bronze Age at Crete, Knossos is only the most famous example, and I've visited three of these today. Of those was Tylissos the absolutely most impressive and it can be counted as one of my favourite sites so far.


Tylissos, building A - this is as close as you can get to a general view.


A so called Pillar Crypt (Tylissos, building A). These are assumed to have some sort of cultic significance, but I would argue that they (normally) are secular cellars - the central pillar is simply needed to support the upper floor (it seems like it almost always carried a column on the second floor, you can see this on several sites.).


A storage room (Tylissos, building A) with Pithos, (large storage vessels). Notice the pillars, clear indicators of a upper floor - there are also stairs present.


A Venetian Aqueduct. Beautiful! I admire Venetian architecture more and more every time I run into it.

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