Long before the nightclubs arrived, Malia’s best-known resident was a king’s brother. Mythology gives this Minoan palace to Sarpedon, third son of Zeus and Europa, and brother to King Minos. Built around 2000 BC, wrecked around 1700 BC, then rebuilt on the same plan, it met its end around 1450 BC. Fire, war or natural disaster: opinions differ.

It is Crete’s third-largest Minoan palace, with a hypostyle crypt where town officials met, great pithos storage jars and a carved kernos stone, a round table with hollows for seed offerings to the gods. The real prize turned up 500 metres north, in a necropolis farmers called Chryssolakkos, the “pit of gold”: the famous bee pendant, now in Heraklion.

VoiceMap’s driving tours use the palace as a starting line, one leaving its car park for Spinalonga and Agios Nikolaos, another letting you pause, explore the ruins and press Resume.