On Friday 23 March 1900 at 11 a.m. Arthur Evans began his excavation of Knossos. Although he was not the first to excavate at the site, that honour belongs to a Greek appropriately called Minos Kalokairinos in 1878, it was to be Evans who uncovered the Knossos Palace and brought to light a hitherto unknown civilisation -- possibly the oldest in Europe.

Evans designated the building at Knossos a palace and named the civilisation that had built it the Minoans, after King Minos of Greek mythology.

Evans, like all of us, was a product of his time, and his time was Victorian England. He was an amateur archaeologist as were many archaeologists at the time. Although much criticism has been levelled at Evans in the intervening 100 years for the way in which he rebuilt parts of Knossos, matters might have been worse still if Heinrich Schliemann had succeeded in buying the site of Knossos. Evans also rebuilt large parts of the site. In some cases this was clearly unavoidable. The great staircase, for example, would have collapsed onto the workmen on the site if action had not been taken to restore it.

Knossos has been inhabited longer than any other site in Crete. The first settlers probably arrived some time before 7000 B.C, making there the first settlement on what was to be the eventual site of the palace.

The old palace was built during the Middle Minoan period. Not much of it remains, as the New Palace was built on the same site.

The West Court would have been used as a public meeting place and would have formed a link between the palace and the town as roads from the town lead towards the palace. It is thought that the west side of the Old Palace was used for administrative purposes, given the hieroglyphic tablets found there, for storage and for cult rituals.

It is not clear whether during the Old Palace period Knossos was the capital of Middle Minoan Crete. There may well have been a number of political centres at that time.

The Old Palace was destroyed at the end of the Middle Minoan era, possibly by an earthquake, but almost certainly by natural means.

The west side of the palace at ground level was given over to shrines and store rooms. The wealth of the society is attested to by the large number of storerooms and the boxes that were stored beneath the floors.

On the West Side of the Palace is one of the most famous of rooms unearthed by Evans, the Throne Room.
With its low ceiling and lack of windows it was separated from the Central Court by an anteroom. The throne is placed along a side wall facing across the room.

There were two exits from the Throne Room. One led to a set of nine rooms and the other to storage rooms. Two of these had vaults in the floor like the room where the Snake Goddess was found. The Throne Room and the rooms leading off it seem to be a complete, distinct unit within the Palace. The main shrine may have been what is now called the Throne Room, with the throne being used by a priestess rather than a King as Evans imagined.

The Snake Goddess Sanctuary lies to the south of the Throne Room and it is here that one of the most famous -- and most photographed -- objects of Minoan Crete was found, the Snake Goddess. In fact several snake goddesses were found buried in cists in the ground. Two of the Snake Goddesses have been restored and are among the must-see treasures in the Museum at Heraklion. Further south in the West Wing we come to the Cup Bearer Sanctuary, so named after a life-sized fresco, the remains of which had fallen to the floor. This fresco shows a religious scene of temple attendants holding conical rhytons (drinking horns).

The West Store Rooms are situated to the west of the Lower West Wing Corridor and they consist of a number of long narrow rooms, many with enormous storage jars still in situ. On the storey above the store rooms there were big square chambers One chamber, the Great Sanctuary, was 16 metres across and had a very large window which may have been used for ritual appearances before the people at ceremonies in the West Court. The room was decorated with a bull leaping fresco.

The north entrance to the Palace opened into the North Pillar Hall. From there one could go, via the North Entrance Passage, to the north end of the Central Court. This passage way was originally open to the elements but some time after 1700 b.C it was covered over. It is thought that there may have been a dining area above the North Pillar Hall. Inside the Pillar Hall itself a large number of tablets were found, which suggests that this was an administrative area. Being close to an entrance to the Palace, the area may have been used to record produce as it was brought into the Palace.The North Pillar Hall may also have been a place where people newly arrived at the palace would gather.

Immediately south of the North Pillar Hall is the Bull Chamber, which was on the same level as the Central Court. It was here that the Bull Relief Fresco was found.

The north east corner of the Palace was found to be badly damaged when it was excavated and this makes it difficult to understand what the area was originally used for.

The north end of the East Wing originally comprised store rooms and rooms where craftsmen worked and is known as the Temple Workshops.

The Sanctuary of the Great Goddess no longer exists, only the remains of the cellars below can be seen today. But as was so often the case, when the building collapsed a large number of objects from upper floors fell through to the ground floor and many of these were recovered during the excavations. Among the finds was sanctuary equipment including a small three-pillar shrine and altars, one of which had horns of consecration on top. A statue of a goddess, possibly three metres high, almost certainly existed as bronze locks of hair were found in the cellars. The Sanctuary was reached up a flight of twelve stairs from the Central Court. Beyond this area the drainage system is still preserved to the east of the Room of the Stone Drain Head.

The highlight of the East Wing is the Grand Staircase and the rooms below it. The excavation of the Grand Staircase proved to be a major headache to Evans and his team, not least because it was actually quite a dangerous undertaking.

The Hall of the Double Axes was a double chamber with an inner and an outer space. The inner space could be closed off by eleven sets of double doors. A similar arrangement can be seen in the "royal rooms" at the Palace of Phaistos. Presumably some aspects of religious ritual were public and others were not, and so it was necessary to be able to close off the inner area from the view of others.

Near the Hall of the Double Axes is the Dolphin Sanctuary. The area takes its name from a Dolphin Fresco which was found here in pieces, although it probably fell from the floor above during the destruction of the palace. A replica of the fresco now adorns the north wall. A lustral basin adjoined the Dolphin Sanctuary and this area now contains a "bathtub" which was found some distance away and not in the lustral basin at all.Evans had some problems with bathrooms at Knossos. In the Throne Room, Evans could not accept that the sunken area was a bathroom as it was located only four metres from the throne so he decided it was a place of ritual purification. But here, in his royal apartments he was quite happy to interpret the lustral basin as an ordinary bathroom. Since there are a number of lustral basins dotted about Knossos, it seems rather likely that they were all used for the same purpose, which would exclude the use of this particular lustral basin as the queen's bathroom.

The royal road is one of the oldest and best preserved ancient roads in Europe. As it approaches the Palace, the roads divides into two. One road goes to the theatral area, while the other road leads to the West Court. Originally it would have passed through the Minoan town on the way to the palace. A little imagination is now needed to picture it as it would have originally been because today it passes along a deep, tree-lined trench.

The theatrical area is a paved area thirteen metres by ten. Around it is an L-shaped area of steps which would offer standing room for about 500 people. Given the size of the town and the palace itself, this area does not accommodate a particularly large number of people.