Tree, Knossos, Crete
This is a painting of a tree growing out of the archaeological remnants of the Palace of Knossos, located on the island of Crete. The palace, now in the suburbs of Heraklion, was constructed around 1600 BC by the Minoans, a Bronze Age civilization. Knossos was also the setting for the famous Minotaur labyrinth myth.
In the early 1900s British archaeologist Arthur Evans excavated and extensively restored parts of the site, using a lot of concrete and creatively re-painted murals, in a questionably-accurate manner that would likely not happen today.
We visited Knossos right before the pandemic, in February of 2020. The memories of that sunny afternoon spent exploring the peaceful palace gained extra significance during the months of dreary lockdown that soon followed.