Page 261 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Greek Islands

Must See

c 2000 BC
First palace period: c 1370 BC c 800 BC
construction of the Second palace City- state of
palace. destroyed by fire. Knosós emerges
Timeline 7000 BC 1750–1700 BC c 1100 BC 67 BC
First palace destroyed by
Dorian invasion of Greece.
Arrival of the
Roman
first inhabitants
earthquake; construction
End of Bronze Age and
conquest
of Knosós. of the second palace. beginning of Dark Ages. of Crete.
Unlike other Minoan sites, the Palace of Knosós
was imaginatively restored by Sir Arthur Evans, THE MINOTAUR
who excavated the site, between 1900 and The half-bull, half-man Minotaur was
1929. While his intepretation is the subject of born of a white bull and Queen Pasiphaë,
academic controversy, his reconstructions of wife of King Minos of Crete, part of a
the second palace gives visitors an impression trick played by Poseidon. Rather than
of life in Minoan Crete that cannot be easily kill the monster, Minos imprisoned it
gained from the remains of other palaces on in a labyrinth constructed by Daedalos.
the island. When Androgeos, son of Minos, was mur-
The focal point of the site is its vast north– dered during the Panathenaic Games,
south aligned Central Court, off which lie many Minos demanded that 14 Athenian
of the palace’s most important areas (p262). youths be sent to Crete as food for the
The original frescoes are in the Archaeological Minotaur each year. Theseus, prince of
Museum of Irákleio (p280), although a replica Athens, volunteered. Aided by Daedalos
of the major frescoes remain at the palace. and Princess Ariadne, he penetrated
the labyrinth, slew the Minotaur and
escaped with his life in tact.

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