After a brief excavational research by Minos Kalokerinos in 1878, and several unsuccessful efforts on Schliemann’s part to buy out the land off its Turkish owners, fortune smiled upon Arthur Evans, the director of the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford. He started excavating the area systematically after Crete was liberated from the Turks. The excavational research around the palace and the surrounding area continued well into 1931. Evans restored part of the palace as well. His work still remains untainted except from the odd touch here and there.

Even though Kefalas Hill - the area surrounding the palace - was already populated during the Neolithic Age (6000 B.C.), the first palatial facilities where built in 1900 B.C. During that period several of the island’s royal families had embarked in an effort to gain power and wealth by using their influence on neighboring provinces. Unfortunately the first palace was destroyed by an earthquake around 1700 B.C. The second one - whose remains can still be seen today - was a little bit bigger and its construction started almost immediately. It was destroyed in 1450 B.C., possibly due to an earthquake as well. During that same period Crete was taken over by the Mycenaeans, who erected the second palace. Unfortunately it wasn’t meant to last for long: It was destroyed in a fire around 1380 B.C. This last catastrophe still remains a great mystery for archaeological researchers. Who could have been responsible? Why wasn’t it reconstructed? In the next three centuries many different refugees set up their homes in the palatial area, after a bit of restoration. The Dorians arrived in the island in 1100 B.C. The area was gradually covered with earth but Greeks will always remember it as the great Labyrinth, a mazy construction nobody could find his way out of.

According to tradition, the palace was the seat of the legendary King Minos, who lived there with his clergy and dignitaries, but it also constituted the financial and administrative center of the wider area of Knossos. It is built around a central courtyard, which separates West wing A - where the ceremonial halls and the sanctuaries were situated - from East wing B, where you’ll find the residential areas and the workshops.

Nowadays you can enter the archaeological site from the west side, but before reaching the west propylaea, you have to cross the paved courtyard outside, with the elevated paved passages and the three consecutive circular dug-out pits. The passages are called “polpika”, because they were especially reserved for sacred processions, or so they say. The circular pits were used for depositing holy articles.

The west propylaea of the palace were supported by pillars with two rooms behind them. One of them is believed to have been used as a porter’s lodge and the other contained a throne for the king to sit in and watch the ceremonies taking place in the west courtyard. Next to those two rooms there was a long hallway leading southwards, then turning to the east and finally to the north, leading visitors to the great central courtyard of the palace. It was known as the processional hallway, because of all the painted representations on the walls. Unfortunately only parts of it remain. Halfway through the processional hallway, one could reach the first floor after crossing the inner south propylaea. The southwestern part of the propylaea was restored by Evans. A wide, open staircase leads to the first floor, where the official quarters of the clergy (Piano Nobile) were located. Once you crossed the vestibule you’d find yourself in the Trikionio Iero, a name invented by Evans to describe a three-pillared shrine. Nowadays only their bases remain. Down below you could see the eighteen western storerooms, used for storing offerings to the king and the goddess, presents, taxes and whatever income the palace had. The earthenware jars were used for storing liquid (oil and wine) and solid provisions (cereal). The storerooms did not contain any statues. They were lit by oil lamps and one could access them through a hallway on the eastern side.

The Great Hall - only partly restored - is located next to the Trikionio Iero and it is supported by two pillars. On the other side you can see the Sanctuary Hall, supported by six pillars. Behind the Trikionio Iero there’s a series of rooms where you can now admire copies of the frescos that were discovered in the various wings of the palace and then taken to the Archaeological Museum of Heraklion for safekeeping. Among others, you will have a chance to see the Bull-leaping fresco (a contest, probably religious in character ), as  well as the frescos of the Blue ladies and the Celebration, a miniature representation of a festival.

A small staircase leads visitors to the upstairs floor and into the vestibule of the throne room, next to the central courtyard. This room contains a stone basin, which (according to Evans) was used for sprinkling cathartic water. After the vestibule, comes Mino’s actual throne room, which still remains intact after all these years. The throne is surrounded with desks that were meant for the clergy, and on the other side of the room there’s a basin for purification purposes. It’s worth mentioning that the President of the International Court of Justice has an identical throne in honor of King Minos, who is considered to be the first judge in history. The wall behind it used to be decorated with painted representations of gryphons: Monsters with the head of an eagle, the body of a lion and a snake-like tail. West of this hall there used to be another sacred space for the exclusive use of the high priest-king.

The courtyard outside the throne room was used for religious ceremonies.

South of the throne room there used to be the so-called Central Staircase, which unfortunately did not survive the test of time. All that’s left is a few steps. If you keep waking southwards you’re bound to come upon the Pillared Crypt Shrine and the Sacred Treasuries. The Pillared Crypt Shrine consists of a vestibule and two crypts (dark isolated rooms) supported with pillars. There used to be a double axe (the sacred emblem of the Minoans) engraved over them and on the floor you can still see some rectangular repositories.

If you want to visit the east wing of the palace you will have to cross the main courtyard. This wing used to consist of four floors communicating by way of the Central Staircase. About 50m to the south there’s a hall with a bath and then comes the Sanctuary of the Double Axes, now protected by a roof. On the opposite corner you can see yet another basin for purification purposes.

 If you enter the east wing through the main courtyard you’ll find yourself directly on the first floor. All four floors were lit by a skylight. On the ground floor there used to be a small atrium surrounded by galleries. At the bottom of the staircase there was a long corridor with a door on the right, leading to two adjoining rooms, the Hall of the Double Axes and the Royal Villa. According to researchers, it’s quite possible that this is where Minos held his hearings, because they discovered traces of a throne. There was another skylight on the east side, so even though the Villa was located on the ground floor of a four-storey building it was very well-ventilated and lit.

 The Hall of the double axes got its name from the numerous engravings of the Minoan’s sacred emblem in different parts of the room. A small door on the north wall leads to a hallway with the Queen’s Villa at the end of it. The Queen’s quarters were lit by two skylights and the walls were decorated with wall-paintings, creating a sense of luxury equal to the King’s Villa. There was a smaller room on the right, supposedly the Queen’s bath. Her sit-in bathtub has been fully restored. The bath was connected to another room, the so-called Kalopistirio, a kind of boudoir lit by a northern skylight.

The Queen’s quarters were connected to the Central Staircase by a corridor, leading past the Hall of the Double Axes and into the workshop sector. First came the stone-sculpture workshop, then the pottery workshop, located on the north side, and after crossing a courtyard you got a storeroom with huge earthenware jugs, dating back to the period of the first palace. East of the workshop wing there was a bulwark protecting the entrance of the palace, with a vast open space in front of it. According to Arthur Evans that’s where the bull-leaping contest used to be held.

If you walk up the staircase, past the storeroom with the big jugs, you’ll soon get to Tatrikioses Corridor. It was named after a royal game reminiscent of chess, now on show at the Museum of Heraklion.

 If you proceed to the north gate you’ll be able to make out the restored west bulwark. Unfortunately there’s not much left from the eastern one. These bulwarks are on either side of a small passage leading right up to a pillared room used as a customs station, at least according to Evans. The north entrance of the palace was located right next to it, with a tiny road leading to the Theater that still remains in excellent condition. It usually hosted religious ceremonies and public spectacles for the people who lived in the palace. It had two tiers, one vertical, one horizontal, and an elevated podium for the royal boxes. The Royal Street, dating back to the first period of the palace, begins right outside the theatre and it is justifiably considered to be the oldest road in Europe.

Text: Yiorgos Koutsouflakis Archaeologist.