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At the same time as the Ancient Egyptians influenced a great deal of the near east another great civilisation was developing on Crete. The Minoan race controlled a large territory and had their capital in the magnificent city or Knossos. The Palace is near Heraklion, the capital city of the island of Crete.
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The Palace city of Knossos is one of the main tourist attractions on the Island. When Sven visited it was very hot and very busy but Luckily he was used to the heat, being an Ostrich.
There are lots of interesting things to see at Knossos and it takes a few hours to get round everything. Quite a lot of the site has been restored to give you a good idea of what the buildings once looked like.
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When the site was excavated most of the art there had been destroyed but from the few surviving fragments it was possible to reconstruct what the paintings on the palace walls would have looked like. This example, which has a lot of similarities with Egyptian art, is one of the largest reconstructed images.
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One amazing thing about the site is the huge number of large clay jars which were found. These would have once contained grain and liquids for the palace.
When the site was excavated many of these jars were found still in their original positions protected by the fact that they were in vaults under the buildings.
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Sven was very impressed by Knossos. The reconstructed parts of the site give a very good idea of what it would once have looked like, while the ruins are perfect for pretending to be an intrepid explorer.
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A lot of the finds from Knossos are on display in the Heraklion museum such as these clay coffins are typical of what the Minoans used to bury their dead. These are so common that almost every museum on the island has a few on display.
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