Crete and the Palace of Knossos

Greece's largest island contains the Palace of Knossos -- the administrative center of the Minoan civilization (2700-1450 BC), the first advanced society in Europe -- whose labyrinthine floor plan of 1,300 rooms is believed to have inspired the myth of the Minotaur and the Labyrinth. Crete also contains the Samaria Gorge, one of Europe's longest gorges at 16 kilometres, and a cuisine (Cretan diet) that gerontologists in the 1950s identified as the reason Cretan men had the lowest heart disease rates in the world.