Ankara is a cool city. The food is great.

The main draw of Heraklion for most tourists is the Palace at Knossos, which is just a few kilometers from the city center. It was a bit of a disappointment for me. I did not know until I visited this site that much of it is a massive restoration (or more accurately, re-creation) mainly under direction of the archaeologist Arthur Evans in the early 20th century. Instead of just excavating the site and possibly reassembling structures using their original (now broken and fragmentary) components, Evans built entirely new structures such as ceilings, stairways, and upper floors that are not attested to in the archaeological record. He also used modern reinforced concrete to recreate these structures. He even used concrete to recreate the wood beams seen throughout the site. This becomes quite awkwardly apparent when you see wooden beams "crumbling" because the steel rebar underneath has rusted and been revealed through broken sections of the faux-wood concrete. Thus, the Palace you see today is mostly one modern man's creative act. It is a best guess as to how the Palace looked in ancient times. It is more fantasy than reality.