YCGL - Tuesday, October 10, 2023 - Heraklion, Crete - It was an Interesting Day - Draft

 

The Throne Room
The alabaster throne on the right hand wall was used as the model for the chair of the chief justice at the International Court of Justice in the Hague.

Joe Lord: "A train wreck is interesting."  No, Joe, a train wreck is a disaster, both human and ecological.  A day like today is interesting.  There is so much here, all squished into a small area, of a culture of which I know very little, and of a crowd of people so large it makes this guy from Wyoming very uncomfortable, it was interesting.  Overwhelming, but interesting.  

Heraklion, Crete, and specifically Knossos, was the center of the Minoan empire.  The Palace of Minos had two lives, the "old" palace, from 1900BC to 1700BC and the "new" palace, from 1700BC to 1450BC.  The old palace corresponds to the Old and Middle Kingdom in Egypt and the new palace to the earlier portion of the New Kingdom.  There is evidence of trade taking place between the two during the Middle Kingdom.  There is even artistic/religious work showing Egyptian influence on the Minoans around that time.  

The Minoan people were named after the first King/Priest, King Minos.  Homer even refers to Minos as the king in Knossos in the Illiad.  Minos is also active in Greek mythology, such as stepfathering the Minatar after his wife bred with a bull that was supposed to have been sacrificed to Poseidon.  But there is some question about whether it was the father or the grandson Minos.  But Greek myths are like that.

The Palace at Knossos was discovered around 1875 but was not developed until British archeologist Arthur Evans bought the property and started excavating in 1902.  By good luck, he found the Throne Room with the throne in three months, which propelled him to work the area for 34 years.  

 The palace is not large, my guess would be 400 feet by 400 feet or less, about the size of four American football fields.