Lassithi Sitia Archaeological Museum

Location: Sitia
Don't miss: Museums guide (free admission dates and other useful info)

The Archaeological Museum of Sitia is one of the most remarkable museums in Crete and hosts findings from the region of Sitia and the wider prefecture of Lassithi. The collection of the museum is divided into 4 categories, with exhibits that date from 3500 BC to 500 AD.

The museum opened its gates in 1984 and is located at the entrance of the town, on the road from Sitia to Ierapetra. Apart from the exhibition room, it also comprises many storehouses, laboratories, and an archaeological library.

The most important exhibit is a Kouros, a male statuette made of gold and ivory that was excavated in the Minoan town of Palekastro in eastern Lassithi. Very interesting are also the findings from the Minoan Palace of Kato Zakros, among which are some large vases with evident traces of the fire that destroyed the palace at the time. Findings from Kato Zakros also include tablets in Linear A and household items of the palace, such as cooking utensils and a mill for cereal grinding.

In the Archaeological Museum of Sitia, visitors will also see tombstones from the Greek Dark Ages and the Archaic period, a bull-shaped rhyton, an ivory compass, statuettes from sanctuaries, sections from the Roman villa of Makrigialos and a collection of vases that were found in a Roman shipwreck and are today guarded in a tank with salt water.