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At the Fantaxometochi Winery, south of Knosos near Archanes village, one of Greece’s leading winemakers has opened Crete’s newest purpose-built visitor attraction. A state-of-the-art audio-visual show celebrates the island – its landscapes, history and traditional way of life. The show also highlights the vineyards and grape varieties that produce some of the Boutari family’s award-winning wines. You can sample and buy Boutari red and white wines at the winery shop.

In the 4th century AD Crete became part of the Byzantine realm.

The Byzantine Empire loses Crete to Arab invaders in AD 824. The Emperor Nikiforas Fokas reconquers the island in 961.

This gloomy cave in the remote Sellino highlands is now a Greek Orthodox shrine.

The Venetians lost Chania to their arch-rivals, the Genoese, in 1263. They regained it 22 years later, and set about making the town impregnable, starting with walls around the hill above the harbour in the district still known as Kastelli (the castle). Further walls followed, but though they may have deterred occasional pirate raids, they proved ineffective when the Turks assailed the city in 1645.

Dalianis garrisoned the fort at Frangokastello with only 385 men during the nationwide uprising in 1821. On the mainland, the rebellion succeeded, giving birth to the modern Greek state, but in Crete it failed. Dalianis and his men, overwhelmingly outnumbered by the Turks, were massacred in a valiant final stand.

Though much overgrown, the dilapidated walls standing among orange and lemon trees are still impressive. The castle was the scene of a famous massacre, when the Cretan rebel leader Georgios Kandanoleon was betrayed by Francesco Molini during his wedding to Molini’s daughter.

Daedalus and his son, Ikarus, made wings of feathers held together with beeswax in order to escape imprisonment at the hands of King Minos – punishment for helping Theseus slay the Minotaur. Ikarus flew too high and the sun’s heat melted the wax, causing him to plummet into the sea, but Daedalus reached safety in Sicily.

According to ancient Greek myths, this mossy cavern, filled with strange limestone formations, was the birthplace of the greatest Olympian god, Zeus. Rhea, Zeus’s mother, supposedly hid the young godling from his father, Kronos, here. Bronze figurines and Minoan double axes found in the cave are on show in the Irakleio Archaeological Museum. The site is also often referred to as the Idaian Cave.