Knossos

Knossos or Cnossus (both: nŏs`əs), ancient city of Crete, on the north coast, near modern Iráklion. The site was occupied long before 3000 B.C., and it was the center of an important Bronze Age culture. It is from a study of the great palace, as well as other sites in Crete, that knowledge of the Minoan civilization has been drawn. The city was destroyed before 1500 B.C. (possibly by earthquake) and was splendidly rebuilt only to be destroyed again c.1400 B.C., probably at the hands of invaders from the Greek mainland. This marked the end of Minoan culture. Knossos later became an ordinary but flourishing Greek city, and it continued to exist through the Roman period until the 4th cent. A.D. In Greek legend it was the capital of King Minos and the site of the labyrinth. The name also appears as Cnosus and Knossus.

Bibliography

See Sir A. J. Evans, Palace of Minos (4 vol., 1921–35); L. Cottrell, Bull of Minos (1953); L. R. Palmer, A New Guide to the Palace of Knossos (1969).

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Knossos

Ancient royal city, Crete. It was King Minos's capital and the centre of the Minoan civilization. Settled by migrants from Asia Minor in the 7th millennium BC, it gave rise to a sophisticated Bronze Age culture. Two great palaces were built in the Middle Minoan period, the second c. 1720 BC after an earthquake leveled the city. About 1580 BC Minoan culture began to extend to mainland Greece, where it greatly influenced the Mycenaean culture. After its palace was destroyed by fire c. 1400 BC, it was reduced to town status, and Aegean political focus shifted to Mycenae. Knossos was the site of the legendary labyrinth of Daedalus.

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Knossos, Cnossus

a ruined city in N central Crete: remains of the Minoan Bronze Age civilization