Knossos

Knossos is the most important archaeological site of Crete and its located five kilometers on the southeast side of Herakleion. It is defined to be the most characteristic reminisce of the Minoan civilization that developed in Crete. This majestic palace of Knossos used to be occupied by Minoa, son of Europe and Zeus, and by the mythical Minotaur that lived in the "labyrinth", which ended up being a really complicated building that was almost impossible for one to walk through it without expert guidance.

Knossos was the center of the Minoan civilization for the period between 2000-1400 BC. This is where the biggest palace of all the Minoan Crete was located and it was built above the reminiscent of an older and widespread Neolithic city. The palace itself was surrounded by a whole city had no walls and it covered a 20.000 m2 area.

The palace of Knossos, as well as other Minoan palaces went through two architectural phases; the period of the Old Palaces that where destroyed approximately at 1700 BC, and the period of the New Palaces, which also have been destroyed around 1450 BC. In Knossos especially where the damage was less destructive life went on up to 1400 BC, when the palace has been destroyed by a fire.

The first person ever to excavate in Knossos was Mino Kalokairinos in 1878. But it was Arthur Evans who arrived in Crete at 1894, who discovered the palace. He begun the excavations at 1900 and kept on for 35 years.
Knossos kept on being one of the most powerful cities of the Dorian Crete during the Historic Period. During the 3rd c. BC they made an alliance with most of the Cretan cities against Lyttos, the city that tried to put an end on its expanding ambitions. What is quite interesting is that the coins of that period kept on having the Labyrinth on the one side.

One can visit the famous ancient city with the palaces, starting off the west yard, a stone-covered area that is limited in the back from a monumental west facing of the palace and west has three rounded pits. From the south entrance lies the big staircase that led to the first floor, the floor of the noblemen. On the southeast lies the south entrance, with the copy of the wall painting known as "the prince with the lilies".

The life center of the palace is located in the central yard- in the south entrance, and from where it gets divided in three sectors. In the west wing, on the north side, lays the room where the throne is, which includes a hall and the main room. It was in this room that the original stone throne was discovered.
On the back and north from the reminiscent of the temple were the treasuries, where a lot of precious objects were discovered, including the two well known goddesses of the snakes. Behind the stone covered yard of the temple, one can still see two of the crypts. Each crypt has encrypted numerous times the symbol of the double axe. This was believed to be a way of worshiping the goddess without personifications. The west side is completed, on its back, with a lining of 18 tight-long storage rooms, that were discovered fully loaded with jars. On their floor there were angular pits that were used for storage of precious objects most probably. The storage room was separated by the worshiping rooms with a hall.

In the east wing of the palace are the royal rooms. The entrance is through a big hall. At the end of the ventilator there is a path opening and behind it a big space; this is the room of the double axes, and it was named after the worshiping symbols that can be seen encrypted on the walls. This room is connected with the main hall of the royal palace, and it included a throne on its south wall. Next to it there is a path leading to the queen's rooms that were decorated with the famous dolphins as a wall-painting. Different interesting rooms can also be found in the south part of the eastern area, just like the small square temple of the double axes on the south.

On the north side of the eastern wing, there are workshops and storage rooms. One can distinguish the pottery workshop and further east, the storage rooms of the giant jars that used to be part of the storage rooms that belonged to the old palace. The east entrance is shaped from the eastern rampart, that looked like a castle, overlooking the valley of the Kairaton river.

Outside the palace was the theatre, with a angular stone-covered area and amphitheatrically designed seats on its two sides, that create upon their union a castle-like construction, making it seem as the "VIP"seating. Leaving the theatre, there is a stone-paved path, the royal street, which led to a smaller palace on the northwest side of the big palace.

The small palace, created probably at the end of the Neopalatian Era, is constituted by a pre entrance with columns, a main room with a stone-covered yard on its front, a waste tank, a temple and underground crypts. It was a two floor building.
The royal yard, on the northeast of the big palace, was also a two floor building. It is also believed to have been built at the end of the Neopalatian Era, and it's supposed to be part of the big palace. In the main room of the palace was a throne made out of stone.
Going a kilometer away on the south, one can see the royal grave, a two floor construction with a columned main room that is carved with designs of the time.
The upper floor where the big stone horns were found is believed to have been a worshiping temple for the dead.

Knossos was the heart of the Minoan Civilization. It is also reported as Ko-no-so on the 14th c. BC scripts.