Palace of Knossos
Largest of the Minoan palaces, partly rebuilt by Arthur Evans and tied to the labyrinth myth.
Knossos stands on the Kephala hill a few kilometres south of Heraklion and is the largest of the Bronze Age palaces of Minoan Crete. A first palace rose around 1900 BC; after damage it was rebuilt on a grander scale from about 1700 BC, covering some 14,000 square metres of halls, light wells, storerooms and staircases arranged around a rectangular central court. Later Greek writers connected its maze-like plan with the myth of the labyrinth, King Minos and the Minotaur.
Arthur Evans bought the land and began excavating in 1900, naming the civilisation he uncovered Minoan after the legendary king. Working with the architects Theodore Fyfe and Christian Doll, and later Piet de Jong, he rebuilt parts of the ruin in reinforced concrete and added replica frescoes and red-painted columns. The reconstructions remain debated among archaeologists, but they let visitors read the Throne Room, the Grand Staircase and the North Entrance. Most original finds are displayed in the Heraklion Archaeological Museum.
Highlights
- Throne Room with its gypsum throne and griffin frescoes
- The Grand Staircase and the light wells of the residential quarter
- North Entrance passage with the charging bull relief
- Long magazines lined with giant storage pithoi
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