The Minoan palatial centres are the main witnesses to the Minoan civilisation, that of a great Bronze Age maritime power which exercised an enormous influence on cultures - both contemporary and later - of the East Mediterranean.
They highlight an early form of complex urban society, with marvellous buildings, a groundbreaking water and drainage system, masterpieces of art and early writing systems (“Cretan Hieroglyphic” and Linear A, which have not yet been deciphered).
Through the Minoan palaces arose the first organised form of exercising foreign policy through diplomacy in the Aegean, leading to the development of relationships with other civilisations of the East Mediterranean, such as those of Egypt and Syro-Palestine, a fact proven beyond doubt by the archaeological finds.
The myths connected to the Minoan palaces (the Minotaur and the Labyrinth, Daedalus and Icarus, Theseus and Ariadne, etc.) exercised a great influence on mythology and the arts throughout the ancient world and remain a source of inspiration for world art, music and literature today.
- 1) PALATIAL CENTRE OF KNOSSOS
- 2) PALATIAL CENTRE OF PHAISTOS
- 3) PALATIAL CENTRE OF MALIA
- 4) PALATIAL CENTRE OF ZAKROS
- 5) PALATIAL CENTRE OF KYDONIA
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