Knossos Crete Palace Guide

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The site of Knossos is the largest and most impressive of the Minoan palaces and comprises some 20,000 square meters and over 1500 rooms. Knossos lies just 5 km (3 miles) from Heraklion, and besides the palace proper also has over 35 centuries of remains in surrounding hillsides.

Open daily April-Sept. 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. / Oct-March 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m... 4.40 Euros. Suggestion: You might consider wandering around freely, as you can get lost even with the maps (a fact which bears up the mythology of the place).
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Mythological Background

Before 1900, Knossos was considered mythological, the legendary court of the Cretan King Minos, whose wife Pasiphae mated with a bull and bore the Minotaur, a monster half-man, half-bull, who was housed in the labyrinth designed by the master builder Daedalus. Minos demanded a tribute from Athens, which was required to send six men and six women every nine years as human sacrifices to the beast-man.

These sacrificial victims wandered lost within the labyrinth until found by the Minotaur and were gobbled up. This practice continued until the coming of the young Athenian hero Theseus who, with the help of Minos's daughter Ariadne and her ball of thread (which Theseus trailed behind him as he wandered the labyrinth so that he could find his way out again) slew the beast and carried Ariadne off to Naxos.

Daedalus, who had colluded with Ariadne and invented the magic ball of thread, was imprisoned in the labyrinth by Minos but managed to escape with wax wings he had fashioned for himself and his son Icarus. Icarus though, flew too close to the sun, and the wax bindings on his wings melted, causing him to fall to his death in the sea offshore from the island of Ikaria (which is said to resemble a wing).

Theseus, meanwhile, sailed back to Athens, but forgot to change his black sails to white (a signal agreed upon with his father, Aegeus, to indicate that he was alive), and Aegeus, believing his son dead, cast himself into the sea, which became henceforth known as the Aegean. Theseus became king.

Less known than the above details of the myth surrounding the labyrinth of Knossos are the reasons for the demand of Athenian youths as human sacrifices to the Minotaur. King Minos had a son named Androgeus who, according to the myth, was sent to represent Crete in the Athenian games, being a strong athlete, and was murdered by the King of Athens out of jealousy.

The Cretan fleet was sent in retribution and took possession of Athens, but instead of destroying the city, demanded the 'tribute' of youthful victims every nine years. Later, Theseus, son of the king of Athens, volunteered to go, in order to end the suffering of his city by slaying the Minotaur.

In Greek legend, Mount Ida on Crete was the place where the Earth Mother Rhea gave birth to Zeus, who was raised on honey and goat's milk and tended by nymphs. Zeus was also protected by an army of youth against his father Kronos, to whose power Zeus was a threat. Minos was the son of Zeus who became King of Knossos, Crete, and the entire Aegean.

First Excavations and Findings

In 1878, Minos Kalokairinos, a Cretan merchant and antiquarian, carried out the first excavations on the site of Knossos, exposing part of the magazines in the west wing of the palace and a section of the west facade. After Kalokairinos, several others attempted were made to continue the excavations: W. J. Stillman, the American Consul in Greece, H. Schliemann, the excavator of Mycenae and Troy, together with his collaborator W. Doerpfeld, M. Joubin, a French archaeologist and Sir Arthur Evans, director of the British Ashmolean Museum in Oxford and a wealthy amateur archaeologist.

Whether their abandoned efforts were due to lack of success in purchasing the land or denial by Ottoman authorities of such a purchase is unclear, but it was't until March of 1900 that Evans began. Though the basic excavation took four years, he continued working on the site for the rest of his life, doing both building and reconstruction, with great concern for preservation of the remains after their exposure to weather for the first time after three and a half millennia.

He called the main building at Knossos a palace and the civilization that had built it the Minoan civilization, naming it after King Minos of Greek myth. Since his time other theories have been advanced as to the actual function of this and other so-called Minoan palaces. Some say that they were administrative centers or temples (or both). Knossos has been considered, according to another interpretation, a necropolis-a huge burial site to which only priests and embalmers were allowed access.

Evans, whose father was also an amateur archaeologist, had an excellent team working with him, comprised of both British and Greek (including Cretan) archaeologists. It has been suggested that Evans, coming from the British Victorian society of his time, projected the image of British monarchical society onto the Minoan's. (The Queens bath drawing below right)

He defined the main building as a palace and named various chambers for the Minoan Kings and Queens. His rebuilding of large parts of the sites, though often criticized, was clearly necessary , as in the case of the Great Stairway which could have collapsed on the workers had it not been restored. Evans spent his personal fortune on the excavations of Knossos and the rest of his life studying Minoan civilization.

Those who followed him, including those who differed with his conclusions, were working upon the foundation he laid, both figuratively and literally. The capital town of Knossos was built by the ancient Phoenicians, who also colonized the island of Crete, an island with land good for the vine and the olive tree which were major staples of the ancient Mediterranean and Aegean.

Crete was a major trade center during Minoan times. The Minoan culture that developed there was known for its luxurious way of life. Evans' first digs in Knossos in 1900 revealed remains of walls close to the surface, and in a few weeks, remains of buildings were exposed, covering and area of 8,480 square feet. The palace remains sprawled over five and a half acres.

The first palace was dated at around 2000 B.C. It was completely destroyed by an earthquake three centuries later. The new (second) palace, labyrinthine in design, followed immediately. In the middle of the 15th century B.C. the Achaeans from mainland Greece conquered the island and settled at the palace of Knossos. They used the Greek language using the Linear B script as evidenced on clay tablets. The palace was again destroyed by fire in the mid-15th century B.C. and ceased to function as a palatial center.

There is also controversy surrounding the question of how Knossos was finally destroyed. Though Evans believed that it was due to a massive seismic occurrence, many experts believe that Crete was invaded and destroyed by either Dorians, Achaeans or Mycenaean's.

Evans found thousands of artifacts and from them assigned various functions to the chambers and from their level of craft recognized a highly developed culture with a great love of beauty.

Even vessels for oil were beautifully ornamented. These were the huge 'pithoi' kept in storerooms and were found to have contained up to 19,000 gallons of oil. There were artifacts of bronze, pottery, stone, terra cotta and artwork that showed bulls dancing, suggesting possible sacrifice of youths to a bull. (left the Grand staircase light well)

Highlights of Knossos

The Minoan's, unlike later temple builders, designed their palaces to face west rather than east. Visitors today approach the palace via the West Court, which was possibly a marketplace and public meeting place. (the Royal Road right)

The Central Courtyard of the palace was found to resemble a labyrinth, with four wings surrounding it. Its paving covers the site's oldest remains, dating back to Neolithic times. Though some of Evans restoration was clearly guesswork, the Royal Apartments (among the most beautiful at Knossos) are not.

The Grand Staircase that leads to them is not only beautiful in design, but its 'well' brings light into the lower stories. Such wells usually have a courtyard at the bottom and are a common feature of Knossos. The chambers are luxurious-the Queen's Suite an example of this, its main room with its copy of the famous dolphin fresco which was actually found in a courtyard and not in this chamber. The original is in the Heraklion Archaeological Museum. The room opens onto courtyards that let in light and air.

A dark passage leads to the Queen's bathroom in which is found a clay tub that was screened by curtains when in use. Much attention has been focused on the famous 'flushing' toilet, though a bucket was actually used for this. Also much admired is the Drainage System of linked terra cotta pipes running underneath most of the palace, with baffles and overflows to slow down the runoff and prevent flooding. But whether there was sufficient water to service this system and the sumptuous complex is another question.

Up the Grand Stairway to floor above Queen's rooms, you come to what are known as the King's Quarters - Hall of the Royal Guard with shield patterns on walls,and off of this the Hall of the Double Axes (this symbol carved into every block of masonry) with both a personal chamber and a second one for dealing with the public.

At the top of the Grand Stairway, you enter the Central Court (a feature of all Minoan palaces)-now open, though once enclosed by walls of surrounding buildings. On the far side of the courtyard is the northwest entrance to the Throne Room. A worn stone throne shaped for human hindquarters sits against the wall of a small chamber with stone benches suggesting that royal councils were held there. The fresco of two griffins to be seen there was actually found on the ground. This room may have been the seat of a priestess rather than a ruler and was perhaps converted into a throne room later by invading Mycenaean's. It is now closed off by a wooden gate.

The Royal Road to the north of the complex is claimed to be the oldest road in Europe. At one time it may have traversed the island, but ends now after a three hundred meters.

Other structures on the site include The Little Palace (west of main palace); House of the Frescoes (northwest of main palace), a mansion with fine wall decorations; The Royal Villa (northeast of the main palace), possibly the residence of high priests or aristocrats; the Caravanserai (south of main palace), possibly a reception hall and hospice; Temple Tomb (also south of main palace) and connected to the House of the High Priest, the latter containing a stone altar with double axes which frame it; The Unexplored Mansion (northwest of the main palace); a private structure with storerooms; The South Mansion (south of the main palace); another private house, this one with three floors; and the Villa of Dionysus-a private house from Roman times with mosaics of Dionysus. House obviously used in Dionysian cult.

 

Maintenance of Knossos and other Minoan Sites -- Knossos is visited by more than a million people a year. This most spectacular Minoan site and all others are overseen by an 'ephor' (director) of prehistoric and classical antiquities in Central Crete who is responsible for maintaining the sites, managing the museum in Heraklion, and in issuing permits to those building near the sites before any construction is done. Excavations must also be carried out before any construction near the sites begins.

The fame of the Knossos site has brought wealth to Crete, but also threats to it from developers and from sheer weathering. Sir Arthur Evans, who most likely could see what would happen in decades to come with the excavation of this remarkable site, purchased not only the palace grounds, but surrounding land as well to keep it free of new buildings. He even landscaped those areas.

Read more about this far-sighted, visionary man dedicated to the preservation of Knossos in Sir Arthur Evans and the Minoans: The Archaeology of Myth and Ideals by Sandy MacGillivray. New York: Strauss and Giroux.

Kindly See our 10 day Athens-Crete-Santorini travel Itinerary Minoan Magic and also our Eco-Crete Guide and Crete Greek Island guides.