Knossos - Rodney Castleden

The Minonan ruins at Knossos are spectacular to look at and exciting to explore, whatever we believe the original building was used for. It became famous in antiquity as the Labyrinth, the first maze, and it was believed that the great engineer Daidalos designed it. Arthur Evans thought it was the palace of the legendary King Minos, but year-by-year the evidence increases that it was not a palace, but a temple. In this new guide, Rodney Castleden takes us round the building, showing in detail how each room and courtyard functioned within the bronze age temple precinct. We are shown the cellars for storing the offerings Minonans made to their gods, the paved courts for public ceremonies, the sanctuary suites for initiation rituals. In the frescoes we see the powerful priestess who ran the temple. This new perspective takes us much closer to the reality of bronze age Crete than any previous guide.