The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-09-07
ANOTHER ORPHAN CITY.
THE RUINS OF PHAESTOS ARE
 IN SOME
Respects More Remarkable Than
 Those of KnOssOs.

Like other Cretan traditions, the
 claim of the island to have had hun.
 dred cities Is proving not altogether
 vain, Remains of primitive settle z 1nents too considerable to have been
 villages, are coming to light at fal
 more points of the Cretan coast than
 bear name in classical atlases. There
 are half dozen such in part only of
 the eastern half isle, and the recent
 explorations of two among these sup
 plies key to the rest. One now sus-
 poets a "Mycenaean" site in every larg-
 CT plain of the periphery. So far as
 searched at present, these towns show
 little or no sign of having continued
 Into the historic period. Their civilza-
 ton was plotted out with the My cenaean" denomination. The succeed
 Ing class of remains is found for the
 most part higher up inland on difficult
 heights or in remote gorges. An age
 of seafaring and communication be-
 tween ancient seats of luxurious life
 had given way to one of local and
 jejune development. But why and
 how we may only guess
 The crown of the great Cretan civili- nation was in Mindan Knossos. No oth-
 CT site in the island had furnished, or < is, likely to furnish, evidences of so high
 artistic achievement. But there is at least one notable site better preserved. M Knossos, owing to it's revival in later Esepochs and the proximity of its site to
 the medieval capital of Crete, has
 suffered wreck and plunder beyond other sites. Much knoweldge and more Ina gination are required to invest with full significance its "shorn and parcell- &ed ruin" which, lying low in feature sIess value, conveys no immediate im- pression of magniflcence. One must < study its cracked and faded fragments zof fresco, and look narrowly into the work of its relics and stone vases, to
 realize why it claims to rival Mycenae
 in interest. The house must be recon.- Setructed from its furniture, rather than
 the furniture from the house.
 # The ordinary visitor, not specialist,
 will, therefore, prefer the ruin at
 Phaestos, on the south of the island, Bsthe full revelation of which has cer- tainly been the sensation of the past
 spring. When Professor Halbherr an-
 nounced in 1900 that he had begun upon Aa lesser Knossos no one expected that Inc and his Italian colleagues were to sdnd in the event palace more uni
 form, complete and imposing. What
 they have now laid bare stands alone
 in Crete as spectacle. Even those fresh from the Mycenae walls and the RTreasury of Aureus, or even from F,gypt and Syria, must admire the -1f .A..s neft rrfc if Phaestos, all on so intelligible a plan md preserved to a point which excites without overtaxing imagination. The ruin covers a promontory of rock. Far below the greatest of Cretan plains Atretches to Mount Dicte in the blue |fistance Ida hangs right over the Ytte and through gap in the screen to the west show the snows of Sphakia, III three high masses of the Cretan re- ltefs heinz visible from this one point. Qfa so superb a setting it Is the more nify Phaestos should be so difficult of Attainment It may, indeed, be reached III aan hour from the sea, but 1t is from 4he btormy, harborless Libyan Sea. A S&eaYller that had landed it's passengers lfi the sunrise calm at Dybaki would 0ften be unable to reembark them al aso0n. One must ride, therefore, from Candia, making a three days expedi- lion. which will include also Gortyna; but the days are long and the paths Ire rough.
 This place of Phaestos is contained in A vast rectangle, obvious at first sight. There has been an earlier structure, but the building now revealed is of one character and period-that of the acme uf the Mycenaean Age in Crete. The FiAitor approaching from the north, | eSes from a terrace the ruin below dis | ttnguished into three main quarters. | on his left a broad stairway descends | to spacious paved court, containing m altar and tiers of stone seats built | ,ip against the rock, evidently to hold lll assembly,. Flanking this on the east and raised high above it Is the lIaain building, entered by a truly ma jestic flight of steps, extending the full width of the fine pillared hall at their head. But the entrance from without is from the opposite side, Where second and larger paved court 1tretches to the brink of the precipice. Thence is admittance not only to the pillared vestibule and main hall, but to double rank of galleries, and np1e of small chambers to southward, which form the third quarter. This rreat court, round which the walls and doors are admirably preserved, vies with the region on the west. where the TWO main stairways meet, as the best botnt of view on the site. To one Handing in 1t the uses of the various blocks about 1t are manifest Here were IT 11Yfng and sleeping rooms of men. IHslE of women. Their common hall ,ffassembly occupies half another side; ne store galleries for the produce of .l1e plain fill the other half. In the shartfbers to the south they bathed, vorsfipped and lodged their retainers lnd their beasts.
 All this is constructed of an excellent limestone, which has retained its sharp ma square outlines, while the Knos- ian gypsums have crumbled and col apsed. The general impression, there ore. Is the more convincing. But in letails the inferiority of Phaestos is The elaborate frescoes, he sculptured friezes and the delicate l llaSter relief of Knossos were never lere. Phaestos was provincial. It ovid command good stone and good | nasons, but not the materials or the nefl for the more subtle crafts The oble shell was decorated only in the