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A first village
People settled the hill of Kephala around 7000 BC
Settlement on Kephala hill began around 7000 BC, making Knossos one of the earliest known Neolithic settlements on Crete. It grew into the largest and best-known centre of the Minoan civilisation, and was occupied into the first millennium AD.
The palace
The first palace went up around 1900 BC and was rebuilt after 1700 BC
The first palace was built around 1900 BC on a hill that had already been occupied for several millennia. It was rebuilt and expanded after a major destruction around 1700 BC. Like other Minoan palaces, it is generally interpreted as an administrative, economic, religious and ceremonial centre.
The Labyrinth
In Greek tradition the plan of the palace was remembered as the Labyrinth
In later Greek tradition, the complex plan of the palace was remembered as the Labyrinth. According to the myth, Minos ordered Daedalus to build it to contain the Minotaur, a creature with the body of a man and the head of a bull.
The diggers
Arthur Evans began the large excavations in 1900
The first known modern excavation was carried out in 1878 and 1879 by Minos Kalokairinos, a Cretan antiquarian and merchant from Heraklion. In 1900 Arthur Evans began large-scale excavations, and named the Bronze Age civilisation of Crete Minoan, after the myth of King Minos.
Reconstruction
Evans rebuilt parts of the palace in reinforced concrete
Evans undertook extensive reconstructions at the palace using reinforced concrete, colour and architectural interpretation. They made the site easier to read, but have been criticised because they sometimes go beyond what can be securely reconstructed from the evidence.
Day 5, afternoon
It comes after Heraklion Archaeological Museum. Then Morosini Fountain.
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The words are a retelling of the Wikipedia article Knossos, and are shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. They are checked against those articles, and a fact that is not in them is left out.