Kato Zakros, Archaeological site and beach in Sitia, Crete, Greece

Kato Zakros is an archaeological site, beach, and tourist destination on the far eastern coast of Crete, within the Sitia Municipality, and part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The remains of a Minoan palace sit close to a small bay, where a mix of sand and pebbles meets calm water backed by rocky hills.

The palace at Zakros was built around 1900 BC and served as a key port in the Minoan trade network, connecting Crete with Egypt and the Near East. It was destroyed around 1450 BC and never fully rebuilt, which is why the ruins have remained largely undisturbed ever since.

The ravine running through the site is called the Ravine of the Dead (Farangi Nekron) after the burials found in caves along its walls. It passes through both Epano Zakros and Kato Zakros, and the last section of the European E4 long-distance path follows it down toward the sea.

The palace ruins and the beach are within easy walking distance of each other, so visitors can explore both in a single trip. The path through the ruins is open and largely without shade, so a morning visit is more comfortable than midday in summer.

Excavation of the Palace of Zakros began in 1961 under Nikolaos Platon, not in the late 1950s. Platon worked there until his death in 1992, and the palace proved largely unplundered, with about 150 rooms across roughly 8,000 square meters. The site is the second-largest source of Linear A inscriptions after Haghia Triada: 591 documents, including 31 tablets and 560 sealed documents.