This Minoan Palace Has the Oldest Throne Room in Europe

Photo: Inventory Pics from IULIIA_N/Shutterstock

On the island of Crete lies the ruins of an historical palace. Now element of fashionable Greece, Crete was at the time the heart of the Aegean civilization known as the Minoans. Known for elaborate palaces and wonderful frescos, the Minoans were strong gamers in the jap Mediterranean all through the Bronze Age, with buying and selling connections to Outdated Kingdom Egypt and the civilizations of Mesopotamia. The Minoans are frequently described as the initial elaborate civilization of Europe. Nowhere is the glory of Minoan culture so on show as at Knossos—a royal palace nearby the port of Heraklion, Crete.

The Minoan civilization flourished from about 3000 BCE to all over 1500 BCE, finally falling less than the rule of late Bronze Age Mycenaean Greece. The 1st palace of Knossos was made all-around 2000 BCE. It was later on ruined in an earthquake about 1720 BCE. The rebuilt palace is what remains today—a advanced of frescoed rooms, superb columns, and zig-zagging stairs. The palace served as the administrative and ceremonial headquarters of the Minoan realms.

The palace was crafted to handle a massive populace. Basement storage allowed for hoarding wheat, oil, and treasure. Artisans worked in quarters nearby to satisfy the requirements of the inhabitants. Drains, pipes, and paved streets introduced the comfort of contemporary h2o and easy travel to the relaxation of Crete. The Minoans also experienced a creating method (which formulated from a hieroglyphic script to one acknowledged as Linear A) and inscriptions can be discovered throughout Minoan lifestyle.

The throne area at Knossos, featuring frescoed partitions. (Photograph: Stock Images from ANTON CHYGAREV/Shutterstock)

As a royal seat, the palace at Knossos experienced a impressive throne room—thought to be the oldest intact throne area in Europe. The king sat in a gypsum stone throne which is nonetheless on check out nowadays at the internet site. The area also includes a stone bowl which may well have been made use of in religious rituals. The frescos along the partitions of the area depict griffins. Despite the fact that the throne home may have been employed by a ruler, it also could have been purely ceremonial with the throne reserved for the existence of a god or goddess.

The 1,300-home palace offers quite a few other frescos and painted columns numerous of them have been restored in the latest a long time. A renowned dolphin fresco is evidence of the relevance of marine everyday living to the coastal palace. One more fresco depicts a scene assumed to be purposeful “bull leaping.” Acrobats would actually leap bulls—defying danger—in what could have been portion of religious rituals centered all around the bovines.

The popular dolphin fresco. (Image: Inventory Pictures from GEORGIOS TSICHLIS/Shutterstock)

A bull-leaping scene revealed in a (restored) fresco. (Image: Inventory Pics from PECOLD/Shutterstock)

The Knossos palace was destroyed by fire—potentially prompted by earthquakes or the Mycenaean invasions—after 1400 BCE. The ruins were being learned hundreds of a long time afterwards in 1878 by Minos Kalokairinos. The website was afterwards excavated by British archeologist Sir Arthur Evans in the very first many years of the 20th century.

Currently, Knossos can be visited by travelers and historical past buffs. Together with other Minoan palaces, Knossos is at the moment on the tentative checklist for UNESCO Entire world Heritage Web-sites. The web site is most very easily frequented from Heraklion on the island of Crete—a attractive put known for its blue seashores and historic wonders. Whenever you visit Crete, be guaranteed to discover Knossos and find out additional about just one of the good ancient civilizations of Europe.

See extra renderings and photographs from the ancient Knossos—a royal palace on the island of Crete.

An artist’s reconstruction of the Knossos Palace. (Image: Mmoyaq through Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.)

The north portico of Knossos. (Photo: Bernard Gagnon by means of Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.)

The sewers of the Bronze Age palace. (Picture: Wikimedia Commons, General public domain)

Knossos’ Royal Road on Crete, Greece. (Image: Harrieta171 by way of Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.)

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