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Knossos 285 pictures 18 minutes HQ video The most important archaeological site on the island, the home of the legendary King Minos and the complicated Labyrinth designed by the equally legendary Daedalus to cage the Minotaur. Knossos It should be stated beforehand that the most attractive and striking sights to be seen are the fruit of a heavy-handed and debatable work of restoration in Neo-Romantic "ruin" style that has resulted in the partial reconstruction of some parts of the complex. Moreover, the intentional incompletion of the rebuilding work seems, at times, to be reminiscent of the destruction caused by an earthquake. The currently visible structure of the "palace-city" of Knossos mostly dates from the reconstruction that took place in the 17th century BC (Neo-Palatial period) and highlights the unusual design skills of the Cretan architects who built, in stone, a massive complex with over 1000 rooms over a wooden frame with wooden supports. It was split onto two or three floors served by stairways, corridors, porticoes and carriageable ramps. All of it was arranged around a huge rectangular central courtyard. The lack of fortifications is surprising and is an indication of the inhabitants' knowledge of their superior power; the apparent lack of order in the arrangement of the structure is misleading and there is in fact a logical distribution of functions in the various wings and on the different levels. The palace-city was, in fact, an administrative, economic, productive and residential complex all at the same time, not just for the king but also for a large group of managing functionaries and, one assumes, the priests whose role it was to oversee the rituals that accompanied the deeply held religious convictions in every phase of community life whether public or private. In addition to the manifestation of a joyous sense of life and the desire of expressing the fundamental values and concepts of society and its regal apex, it was to the presence of the religious ceremonies that the striking architectural, sculptural and pictorial decorations of the palace-city and its various areas (residential, private royal sections, reception rooms, political halls, shrines and porticoes) are owed. Silos There are three large sunken grain silos. Throne Room The Throne room was named after the alabaster throne, believed to have belonged to the king but which probably was used for formal religious rituals. The room appears to be more a place of worship; the copies of frescoes of cosmological symbols and griffins squatting between lilies on a red background seem to favor this hypothesis. King's Megaron There are two sections with the hall of the double axes. The two sections of which it consists communicate with each other through a tier of doorways, which continues through to the colonnade of the light well in the east. The two light wells at the sides of the room are based on a vertical system of natural ventilation, which achieves a regular circulation of air between them. Queen's Megaron The Queen's Megaron was composed of a central room - with a portico leading straight into the garden - and a private bathroom fitted with a bench, a skylight and a plant for drawing the water. The private rooms were all on the top floor. Magnificent frescoes decorated the walls. "Veranda of the Royal Guard" This is one of the best preserved parts of the palace- The grand staircase in the eastern wing; a truly monumental achievement of Minoan architecture with a capacious light-well to the east, the colonnades of which stood on a stepped parapet. There are four surviving flights of stairs, the first two of which are restored, while the lower two are preserved just as they were found. Northern Entrance This is the only part of the palace that has a controlling defense system. This relief fresco of a charging bull is of the end of the middle Minoan period. It has been supposed that the scene represented a bull-fight or the capture of a wild bull in nets, a subject also illustrated in relief on the renowned gold cups from Sparta, which are generally regarded as being of Minoan workmanship. "The Priest-King" or "The Prince of the Lilies" Upper Hall of Ceremonies of the Western Wing South-West Column Chamber and Pillar Crypt South House It was built during the penultimate building phase, and may have belonged to the high priest of the palace. Back to Crete Index