map of Crete Amnissos is one of the old ports of ancient Knossos. Unfortunately there is almost nothing left of it. It lies 8 kilometer east of the capital Heraklion on the coast. On the hills lie the remains of a Venetian village from the 16th century (Messovouni, no signs leading to it) and a sanctuary of Zeus. At the beach is well marked the Minoan "Villa of the Lilies", which dates from around 1600 BC. Also nearby is the (inaccessible) Eileithyia cave - the goddess of fertility - where pregnant women were requesting a successful and easy birth. But whoever does good to view excavations will be disappointed, as the Villa of the Lilies is behind a fence at the end of a number of private gardens and it is not accessible. You can see it a little bit somewhere from a corner. The Villa of the Lilies had ten rooms and it has this name because here the beautiful frescoes of lilies and other flowers were found that are now in the Archaeological Museum of Heraklion. The rest of the excavations were not indicated as far as I know.

The beach at Amnissos is called Karteros Beach and this is a beautiful sandy beach with facilities such as sunbeds and umbrellas. There are also a number of taverns. It is also pretty big, about three kilometers in length. You just need to be a lover of plane-spotting, because the beach is very close to the airport and you're in the flight path. The beach does have the "blue flag", which means that it is clean and safe for swimming. Just after the beach of Amnissos Beach on the way Heraklion, just around the corner on the left side, there is a cute small church with wall painting. The church is partially built into a cave. I wanted to make some more pictures here but the batteries suddenly stopped and than I also bumped my head against the rock....