or Cnossus both: nŏsˈəs, 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.

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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