Iraklion (Heraklion) is the capital of Crete and the largest city on the island — a working port city of 150,000 people that most visitors pass through on their way somewhere prettier. Don't make that mistake. Iraklion has the best Minoan collection in the world, a still-functioning Venetian harbour with a hulking sea fortress, an excellent street market, and a central square with a 17th-century fountain that has been the heart of the city for four centuries.
The city was heavily bombed in World War II and rebuilt without much elegance, so the centre has an unglamorous concrete character that puts off visitors expecting Venetian postcards (that's Hania, two hours west). But Iraklion rewards those who look past the surface. The old city walls — built by the Venetians and still almost entirely intact — are among the best preserved in the Mediterranean. The Lion Fountain at Plateia Eleftherias and the Venetian Loggia nearby were both built in the 1620s. The 1866 Street market, running from the Lion Fountain down to the old harbour, is loud and vivid and worth an hour of anyone's time.
Knossos, the Bronze Age palace of the Minoans, is 5 km southeast of the city centre — close enough for a half-day visit. Combined with the Archaeological Museum, it makes Iraklion an unmissable stop for anyone interested in ancient history. The Minoans built Europe's first great civilisation here between roughly 2700 and 1450 BC, and the evidence — frescoes, seal stones, Linear A tablets, bull-leaping murals — is extraordinary.