The city of Heraklion is also called Iraklion and serves as the road cycling capital for the whole of Crete. We also call it “little Athens”, as it is very busy …

Places of road cycling interest are:

• The palace and the archaeological site of Knossos.
• The archaeological museum of Heraklion, where the most important Minoan artifacts are displayed.
• The palace and the archaeological site of Phaistos (or Festos), where the world famous Phaistos disk was found, which to date has not yet been deciphered.
• The hippy caves of Matala.