Zakros Palace Crete

Kato Zakros as well as being a beautiful beach in the prefecture of Lassithi, was part of the four most important Minoan administrative centers of Crete.

Located in the extreme eastern part about a hundred meters from the shore above a small plain, it is divided into Pano Zakros that is the upper part of the hill and Kato Zakros the lower part closest to the sea where in the middle runs a canyon called "ravine of the death ” the only one who has never suffered looting over time.

In 1901 the archaeologist D.G. Hogart, director of the English School of Archeology, began the first excavations bringing to light two houses and a deposit with five hundred inscriptions of clay tablets inside, presumably the remains of a commercial correspondence, suggesting that it was the archive, but it was Nikolaos Platonas in 1961 starting to the east on the hill of San Antonio to find and detect the presence of the two-story building and the city around it. For more than 30 years the research continued but the efforts were well rewarded with the discovery of this wonderful ancient city that for a long time dominated the whole area.

Built in 1600 BC in porous limestone, it was a thriving city that maintained its grandeur until Roman times thanks to its favorable position with the port protected on three sides, which allowed it to trade with the Near East and other palaces of the 'island.

It had an extension of 8000 square meters and was considered the smallest of the buildings compared to the others but still very similar to Knossos and Phaistos. A very well developed settlement with its own road network and distinct blocks. A large central courtyard paved in slate from which a labyrinth of streets merged throughout the city with three entrances to the west and the main one to the east where you can observe an altar. With more than three hundred rooms, in the western part were the lodgings of the high officials while in the north was the banquet hall with large skylights and spiral-shaped motifs in relief.

The facades of the rooms adorned with Minoan symbols were of large blocks of stone, while the division between the ground floor and the second floor was in baked bricks with interiors finely decorated with different polychrome of floral motifs.

The productive part of Zakros palace gave a considerable amount of material to fill a room of the Archaeological Museum of Heraklion highlighting how rich life was in the settlement.

Being a remote and mostly mountainous corner of Crete, Zakros, unlike Festus and Knossos which were located in the fertile plain of Messarà, owes its fortunes to maritime trade with Asia and Egypt with which it traded gold and ivory. In this regard, the theory is called into question that the precious artifacts and jewels found in all the Minoan cities were created by Knossos, but it was Zakros who had the best craftsmen, workshops and raw materials for their realization.

Many were the findings at the site of Zakros, thanks also as we mentioned earlier to the fact that it was not raided by anyone. The objects now kept in Heraklion are vases, amphorae, large swords with gold leaves, ivory, decorative objects in copper from Cyprus and an amphora with a decoration of a temple with wild animals as well as objects of common use and of cult.

According to the writings, the Palace of Zakros was destroyed by the violent eruption of Santorini in 1600 BC as evidenced by pieces of volcanic stone found within the site and was never rebuilt.