Fun facts for 3rd graders about Crete:
- Crete is an island of Greece.
- It’s the largest of the Greek Islands, 35 miles at its widest point.
- Average 300 days of sunshine per year
- Has several million olive trees - produces 20% of the world’s olive oil.
- The majority of the half million population live on the north coast, where the capital Heraklion is located
- Crete is one of the 13 administrative divisions of Greece
- Crete has over 1000 kilometres of coastline
- The legend of Zeus includes his birth in a cave on a mountain in Crete
- Crete had one of the world's earliest civilizations, the Minoan civilization, named after King Minos (We’re talking Bronze Age here – 3000-1100 BC)
- Cretan kingdom reached its greatest civilization around 1600 B.C.; lotsa periods of prosperity → destruction → rebuild, etc… then finally abandoned for good
- VIP places: Knossos, Phaistos, Mallia (…Agia Triada, Gournia, Arkhanes, Kamalari, etc are smaller sites of importance)
- Archeologists study the ruins to understand how cultures developed. Things of notice include: layout of palaces, jewelry, pottery, sculpture, inscriptions, type of stone used to build, burial sites, location, etc. The possibilities of more finds are endless.