We are at Iraklion, on the island of Crete. But as has so often been the case, we are not here to see a modern city, but a truly ancient one: Knossos. The bronze-age Minoan civilization is one of history's most interesting chapters. Long before the city states of Ancient Greece, long even before Mycenae and the Trojan War, a great civilization arose on the island of Crete. The Minoan civilization lasted over 1500 years, from 2600 to 1100 B.C., but at the zenith of its power and influence, in 1450 B.C., it was catastrophically destroyed and eventually was almost completely forgotten. "Almost" because names like Minos, Arachnea, Theseus and the Minotaur became part of legend. But no one thought that they had any basis in fact... Until the late19th century, when reports came from European
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