Heraklıon

Most travellers know Crete through the myth of the Minotaur, tracing a labyrinth somewhere beneath Knossos. But Heraklion holds a maze of its own, built from stone rather than legend.

Long before it was Greek, this was Rabdh al-Khandaq, an Arab stronghold named for its moat. The Venetians who took it next called it Candia and ringed it with walls that still hold the old town together, before the Ottomans arrived for their turn. Each empire left something - the restored Loggia, the Koules fortress, the Morosini Fountain's lions still spitting water - layered like a moussaka left to rest overnight.

Most visitors pass straight through, Knossos-bound, missing the town holding it together.

VoiceMap's self-guided audio tours slow you down where it counts - pause beside Erotokritos and Aretousa, Crete's own star-crossed lovers in stone, or under Agios Minas, one of Greece's largest cathedrals - then head into the Ida Mountains, where Anogeia's weavers still work stone mitata huts the old way.

Plug in. Heraklion has been layering its stories since before it had this name.