#Knossos #KnossosPalace #Palace #Crete #Greece #worldwithatwist
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Crete, Greece (part 4): mysterious Knossos Palace – first European Minoan civilization, Ancient Greek Myths: “Minotaur’s Labyrinth” & “Ariadne’s thread”
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Knossos Palace on the Crete island. The center of the oldest European civilization and one of the oldest civilizations in the world. It is the place where the European culture was created. The technologies that were used here, impress even today.
What is so special about this place? How is the Knossos Palace connected with Ancient Greek mythology? And what is the origin of " Minotaur’s Labyrinth" and "Ariadne's thread" phrases?
This place tells a lot of exciting stories which we gonna share with you.
Knossos Palace is located only 6 km away from the main city of the Greek Crete island - Heraklion and 75 km from the
Elounda resort, from where we went to the palace by rented car.
We told about how we got to Crete and the organization of our vacation on the island in our review video (the link in the description).
As the Knossos Palace is located very close to Heraklion city, we decided to combine a visit to the palace with a walk around Heraklion. But we will tell you about Heraklion walk later.
The road to Knossos Palace is mostly mountainous and very scenic.
You need to buy a ticket, to enter the archaeological museum complex of Knossos Palace. You can have an excursion here. We wanted to be a part of the English-speaking excursion and had to wait a while for the group to be formed. And this is the place where excursion is highly recommended to feel how significant and this palace is.
Centre of Minoan civilization
The Knossos Palace was one of the Minoan civilization centers on the Crete island - the first European civilization (Bronze Age III - I millennium BC).
The Minoan civilization flourished during the reign of the mythological King Minos, the son of Zeus. Actually, the civilization was named after Minos. During the reign of Minos, Crete became a rich state, culture and art reached a high level, and the people lived in peace and justice there.
Knossos was one of the most influential cities in the entire Mediterranean at the time of its greatest prosperity and power.
The geographical location of Crete contributed to the development of international maritime trade, which formed the basis of the island's economy.
Archaeological excavations of the Knossos Palace, which were carried out at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. opened to mankind the last, most architecturally and engineeringly perfect palace of the Minoans, which dates back to about 1650 BC.
How was the palace found and restored?
The city-palace of Knossos was found almost by accident. The first elements of the palace complex were found in 1878 by a local resident, who had the same name - Minos (like Minos king of Knossos). The famous English archaeologist Arthur Evans arrived in Crete in 1894 and was interested in this find. Evans tried to find support and financial assistance from the authorities, but everytime he was refused and forbidden to carry out archaeological research. He was tired of looking for help, and bought the whole hill at his own expense. Evans thought this hill was a "buried" under the ground palace. He selflessly financed all the excavations and research, which eventually cost him all the family savings.
What is so unique and progressive about this palace?
Such engineering and architectural wonders as multi-story buildings, natural and artificial lighting, water supply and sewerage, ventilation, heating, and paved paths were used in the Knossos Palace for the first time in the history of mankind.
The most impressive wonder in Knossos is the water supply. The Minoans created a well developed water control system in the palace. Water was supplied from a mountain spring 12 km away from the palace through clay pipes. Tanks with fresh water were created in the palace. It is believed that Knossos is the first city in mankind history that used water toilets with sewage.
The palace of prince was connected to the main building by an artificially created cobbled path, which was laid in the middle of a "corridor" with stone walls. The path was kept to our time almost completely saved. The road surface, in addition to the outer stone pavement, also has several deep layers. Thus, the Minoans invented the technology of building durable roads many centuries before the Romans.
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