A villa in Crete and a vacation spent exploring the island leaves you with endless adventures and lots to see and do from lazy days soaking up the sun at the beach, to sailing and water sports along the coast, to hiking a wide variety of types of routes and paths through this beautiful landscape, to wandering ancient sites, to visiting pretty little towns and indulging in the extraordinary local cuisine. However, if you are interested in history, nature, have kids in your party, or are simply looking for an indoor activity to enjoy during the hottest part of the day for summer breaks, then we cannot recommend a visit to Heraklion’s Natural History Museum of Crete highly enough! A vacation rental in Heraklion is already perfect for history buffs as the entire stunning city is home to some gorgeous old buildings and an excellent Archaeological Museum as well as being positioned close to the Minoan sites of Knossos and Phaestos but the wonderful Natural History Museum is the real cherry on top!
Founded in 1980 and located in the building that once housed the Heraklion Public Power Corporation since 2007, the Natural History Museum of Crete in Heraklion is the largest exhibition of its kind in the Mediterranean and operates under the auspices of the University of Crete. Showcasing the present and historic natural environment of both Crete itself and the wider Mediterranean, this engaging and invigorating museum employs innovative displays and exhibits to inform and thrill visitors!
These exhibits include there wonderful selection of, “Mega-Dioramas,” which constitute the biggest part of the museum’s collection and are realistic, full-scale depictions of ecosystems including painted backdrops, settings, and stuffed animals. For those who are interested in animals, in particular, it is a great chance to get a closer look at wild creatures and see and learn about the kinds of settings in which they live. In addition to this collection of stuffed animals and models, there is also the, "Living Museum," which is a special area of the museum with small scale aquariums and terrariums that actually house living animals that can be found in Eastern Mediterranean region.
Another popular part of the museum is the selection of more hands-on, experiences. The first of these is the Seismic Table, where an earthquake simulator can be found so that you learn about and experience, in a safe environment, earthquakes. In particular, this simulates several earthquakes known to have occurred in different areas in the past. Another wonderful experience built for younger visitors is the Erevnotopos Discovery Centre, where they can dig for fossils.
In addition to these permanent parts of the museum, there have been three temporary exhibitions installed since 2016. Among these is the Dinosaurs Extreme showcase, the most popular exhibition in the entire museum for many visitors, which has life-size reconstructions of dinosaurs, some of which move. For kids who are going through their dinosaur phase or those who remember this period in their life fondly, it is a very fun experience and showcases dinosaurs including the smallest, the largest, the oldest, and the fastest as well as some famous examples like the T-Rex. The other two of these temporary exhibitions that has remained for some time are the Light Mysteries exhibition of holography and optics that is displayed through experiments and illusions and the, Crete, a continent in an island exhibition, which features micro-dioramas of the biodiversity and geodiversity of Crete.
So, if you are interested in the history of our world or just want to see some cool dinosaurs and animals up close, be sure to swing by the excellent museum while you enjoy a holiday rental in Heraklion or a villa in Crete or a vacation rental in Greece!
Natural History Museum of Crete
Knossou Ave., P.O. Box 2208, 71409 Heraklion Crete, Greece
+30 2810-324366
sec@nhmc.uoc.gr
Opening Hours:
Monday to Friday, 9am to 3pm
Saturday and Sunday, 10am to 6pm
Tickets:
General Admission, €7.50
Reduced Admission, €4.50
