Tylissos

Tylissos village is 13 km away from Heraklion, en route to Anogia, on an elevation of c. 200m. It is just outside of the village, that three big Minoan houses (villas) where discovered.

The first excavations were conducted by Joseph Chatzidakis in 1912, while big conservation work was done by Nikolas Platon in 1940-1950. It was himself who discovered the post palatial Megaron.

Tylissos bears the same name for 4000 years. In clay tablets of Linear B from Knossos, the site is mentioned as TU-RI-TO. Although the area was originally inhabited around 2000 BC, its main development comes into the second Palatial Period, 1650- 1450, and 1450 – 1200 BC.

The site preserves three large Minoan Houses that are known under the names House A, House B and House C. All three had a high palatial quality structure and decoration. When the three houses were destroyed and right on top of them, a large type of Mycenaean Megaron was constructed, with a very impressive water reservoir. Among the most important finds from it are: The bronze figurine of a worshiper, three huge bronze cauldrons and a stone obsidian rhyton, all displayed in the Heraklion Museum.

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