Knossos, capital of a commercial empire spanning 500 years, and our top priority on the trip. It stretches back from around 2000 BC until Santorini gave the eastern Mediterranean the world's largest recorded volcanic eruption and threw their civilization into chaos. It is the site of the story of Theseus and the minotaur in the labyrinth, but 2 civilizations older than the classical Greeks. While more of a ruin than the other sites I have seen while traveling, the artifacts and and frescoes were great.
It has been on my travel list since medical school. It is impressive for the how advanced they were and how old it is. It was fun to sit under the pillars and think about that. Older than any other civilized site in Europe. Older than anything in east Asia (China may have been forming a very primitive first dynasty but anything earlier than the Shang dynasty is kinda speculative, and they had nothing like this). Abraham was probably being born around this time. Only Egypt and the early Mesopotamian civilizations were older.
Below is Alyssa playing at the starting point of Europe's first road.
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