Phaistos (Greek: Φαιστός, pronounced [feˈstos]; Ancient Greek: Φαιστός, pronounced [pʰai̯stós], Linear B: 𐀞𐀂𐀵 Pa-i-to; Linear A: 𐘂𐘚𐘄 Pa-i-to[1]), also transliterated as Phaestos, Festos and Latin Phaestus, is a Bronze Age archaeological site at modern Faistos, a municipality in south central Crete.

Hagia Triada's port and relative closeness to Phaistos may have allowed for long distance trade and shared economic and political activity.

Bronze Age works from Phaistos include bridge spouted bowls, eggshell cups, tall jars and large pithoi.

[citation needed] Around the end of the 3rd century BCE, Phaistos was destroyed by the Gortynians and since then has not been present in the history of Crete.

Epimenides, the wise man invited by the Athenians to clean the city after the Cylonian affair (Cyloneio agos) in the 6th century BCE, was a Cretan who may have descended from the people of Phaistos.

[14] The reconstructions of the palace expanded on the first build and were made on multiple vertical levels that were interconnected by halls and stairs.

The fourth and final level was made up of the Hall of the State and balconies that overlooked the palace and its exterior.

[7] The levels of the theater area, in conjunction with two staircases, gave access to the main hall of the propylaea through large doors.

The floors and walls of the interior rooms were decorated with plates of sand and white gypsum stone.

The entrance from the central courtyard led to the royal apartments in the northern section of the palace, with a view of the tops of Psiloritis (Mount Ida).

Phaistos was located in 1853 by Thomas Abel Brimage Spratt, a ship captain who surveyed sites around the Mediterranean.

A village of 16 houses remained on the ridge, but the vestiges of fortification walls indicated that a city had existed there.

[21][22] Occasional work continued at Phaistos until 1908 while Halbherr and Pernier excavated at the Minoan site of Hagia Triada, located about 3 kilometers away.

[26][27][28] Between 1950 and 1966 an Italian School of Archaeology at Athens team led by Doro Levi worked at Phaistos.

[31][32][33] Beginning in 2007 the Phaistos Project (also Progetto festos), led by Fausto Longo, under the aegis of the Italian Archaeological School of Athens has worked at the site, mainly conducting surveys, restorations, and targeted excavations.

[7] Finding artifacts in Phaistos is difficult because the Minoans thoroughly cleaned the original palace ruins before beginning the later iterations.

[42] The historian Diodorus Siculus indicates that Phaistos, as well as Knossos and Kydonia, are the three towns founded by King Minos on Crete.

[43] However, Pausanias and Stephanus of Byzantium indicate that the founder of the city was Phaestos, son of Hercules or Ropalus.