Archaeological Museum of Messara

The Archaeological Museum of Messara showcases artifacts from prehistoric to Christian times, highlighting the region’s unique historical identity.

Planning your visit

The Messara is the largest and most fertile plain in Crete, and it has been farmed continuously for four thousand years. The Archaeological Museum of Messara at Gortyna gathers what excavation across that plain has produced — Minoan material from the tholos tombs that dot the region, Greco-Roman finds from Gortyn itself, and early Christian objects from the period when Crete was a Byzantine province.

Gortyn is the site that matters most. It was the Roman capital of Crete and Cyrenaica, and it preserves the Gortyn Code — the oldest and most complete Greek law code known, inscribed on stone blocks in the fifth century BC in boustrophedon, the alternating left-right script, covering property, inheritance, marriage and the status of slaves.

The plain also holds Phaistos and Agia Triada, major Minoan palace sites.

The museum functions as the interpretive key to a landscape dense with archaeology.

Bookable options include tours combining the museum with Lake Zaros in the hills above. Current availability is listed below.