The mystery of the Minoan Labyrinth in Crete

Crete had entered the Bronze Age by 3000 BC, and in 2000 BC a slave state was established on the northern shore of the island with the city of Nothas as its center. From 2600 BC to 1125 BC, the island emerged the famous Minoan culture, art, architecture, and engineering unprecedented prosperity, and the establishment of a unified Minoan dynasty. Crete was captured by the Turks in 1669 and was annexed to Greece in 1913.

Legend has it that the king of Phoenicia had a daughter named Europa. Once, Europa went for a walk by sea and was seen by Zeus, the god of heaven. Zeus was so enamored of Europa's beauty that he turned into a beautiful bull and knelt at her feet as if to invite her to sit on his back. As soon as Europa sat on the back of the cow, it jumped up and flew out to sea. Europa knew she had been cheated, but could do nothing about it. So she asked, "Who are you, strange cow, and where are you taking me?" Zeus said his name and told her he would take her to Crete and marry her. In this way, Europa obediently became the wife of Zeus, and their son Minos later became king of Crete.

Minos was the strongest king of Greece. He founded cities and created the earliest written laws in history. But like all the Kings before him, he was gradually carried away by power and success, and he forgot himself and made himself a god. His father Zeus, the real god of heaven, was enraged and, in the case of repeated indiscretions, gave Minos a unique punishment: Minos gave birth to a monster with the head and body of a cow, which the Cretans called Mino Cow.

Mino cows eat human flesh. At the same time, Dedalus, who was both an architect and an artist, killed his student because he was jealous of his superior skill. He fled from Athens to Crete and took refuge with King Minos. Minos instructed Dedarus to build a maze for the dreaded Mino cow so that he could be trapped and not let out to harm the people. The central room of the huge building is said to be the residence of the Minot cow, which is connected by many intricate roads. People who entered the palace without knowing the path were either eaten by Minot cows or starved to death in the passageways.

One day, the son of Minos Androgeus died in Athens. Minos suspected that he was murdered by the Athenians, so he sent a powerful fleet to surround the city. Finally, the Athenians surrendered under the double whammy of hunger and disease. Minos ordered the Athenians to send seven virgins and seven virgins to Crete every nine years to feed the Mino cattle.

When Athens paid tribute for the third time, Prince Theseus volunteered to be the sacrificial lamb and vowed to kill the evil monster. As soon as Theseus arrived in Crete, Ariadne, the beautiful daughter of Minos, fell in love with him and swore she would never marry him. She bribed Dedarus, the builder of the labyrinth, and, following his instructions, secretly gave Theseus a ball of thread and a sword. Theseus tied one end of the thread to the entrance of the labyrinth, and gradually loosened the thread along the winding passage until it reached the great hall where the Minoren lived. The Mino ox was originally powerful, but its strength declined because of long-term confinement. After a long and fierce battle, the Mino ox was eventually killed by Theseus. Finally, Theseus and the saved boy and girl walked out of the maze following the path of the ball of thread. The amour princess Ariadne had already met Theseus outside the maze, and they fled Crete together, returned to Athens, and made a happy marriage.

These myths and legends, both true and false, have been passed down from generation to generation, and people have added to them, attracting the attention of people who care about them. But is it just a legend? Is there a maze or not? Where is the maze? These problems have not attracted much attention.

Find the Maze by accident

In 1893, the British archaeologist Evans accidentally found some triangular and quadrilateral stones with holes pierced along the axis in the antiquarian market in Athens. The stones were carved with symbols that seemed to belong to hieroglyphics. Evans asked the stall owner where he had got it, and the stall owner told him clearly that he had got it from Crete. This is what the speaker does not mean, the listener does. Evans had a good education, a systematic study of history, and a good study of the history of Crete. Evans first set foot in Crete in 1894 and was fascinated by the ruins. He collected a large number of fragments of hieroglyphics and returned to write a book called "Cretan Pictography and the Pre-Phoenician Alphabet", which suggested that the ancient civilization of Greece may have originated from Crete. With support from all walks of life, Evans bought a large area of Crete from the Greek government in 1899 and began 25 years of archaeological work. Less than a month after he began excavating, Evans knew he had discovered a new civilization: the 2.33-by-104-square-meter Minoan Palace site had been rediscovered after countless pieces of floating earth had been cleared.

Now, the palace site has been fully excavated and partially restored. Its overall building is rectangular, according to the general Minoan palace, with no walls around the watchtower, the whole palace to the rectangular central courtyard as the center (60 meters long, 30 meters wide), built against the mountain, and the terrain is high in the west and low in the east, so the west building has two or three layers, the east building has four or five layers. Looking at the palace from the east foot, I saw the towering floor, doors, and Windows of the gallery uneven list, its landscape is rare for the ancient palace. The buildings on the west side were mainly used for office, assembly, worship, and storage of property, while the buildings on the east side were the bedrooms, living rooms, schools, and workshops. All the floors are connected by staircases, especially the grand central stairway in the east of the courtyard, which is the most magnificent: it has a patio and forms a colonnade on three sides. The stairway is wide and brightly painted and is regarded as the most outstanding monument of the palace building. The double ax hall beside the grand central staircase is divided into two rooms, inside and outside, separated by folding doors, which provide warmth in winter and ventilation in summer, showing the dexterity of Minoan architecture. Adjacent to the hall, the Queen's Chamber is a typical Minoan residence, with elegant wall paintings of dolphins splashing in the water, and connected to it is a small room with a bathroom and flushing toilet, a sanitary facility unique in ancient times. In keeping with the high level of architecture, the frescoes throughout the palace are the finest examples of ancient art, showing the Cretan culture's emphasis on dexterity, as opposed to the Eastern grandeur and heaviness.

The Minnow cow is just a legend, not a foundation, so it is not credible. But King Minos became so ruthless that it was reasonable for him to build a palace where assassins could not enter. Darius, the designer, is said to have been trapped in the maze himself after the project was completed.

The riddle of the maze

Ancient Greek civilization originated from Aegean island, and the Cretan culture is representative of Aegean culture. As early as 2100 BC ~ 1500 BC, the inhabitants of Crete established a slave state and controlled most of the islands in the Aegean Sea and the southern coastal areas of Greece, becoming the first maritime power in Europe. A major earthquake occurred around 1700 BC, which destroyed most of the buildings on the island. However, the buildings rebuilt were more magnificent and magnificent. The site that Evans excavated was the final restoration of the palace. But 200 years later, the maze suddenly disappeared and Minoan culture suddenly ceased.

The mystery is: where did the early Cretans, who were able to rebuild destroyed buildings, but who later abandoned them and disappeared?

In 1952, Ventry, a British scholar, successfully translated a text from a relic that was identified as being from around 1500 B.C. and identified it as the writing of the Mycenaeans of the Greek Peninsula.

This proved that the owners of Minoan had changed to the Mycenaeans and that the Minoan kingdom was no more. But if the Mycenaeans ruled Crete, why not enjoy the palace, but have the heart to destroy it?

Americans Wes Moon and Waylen wrote in their book World History, "Around 1400 BC, a sudden and mysterious tragedy happened in Crete. The great palace of Minos was looted and burned, and the other cities of Crete met the same cruel fate." What was this "sudden and mysterious tragedy"?

Human factors, such as war, will never solve the mystery. Because the Minoan palace in addition to the top cover, the foundation, walls, and frescoes are intact, if it is man-made damage, there will be all kinds of traces to be found.

Some say that in 1450 BC, another earthquake hit Crete and destroyed the Minoan civilization. It turns out, however, that no earthquake would have destroyed Minos in that year, but a terrible volcanic disaster occurred around 1470 BC.

About 130 kilometers north of Crete lies the 78-square-kilometer Santorini Island, which is home to the 584-meter-high Santorin volcano. Around 1470 BC, the volcano erupted in what was the deadliest volcanic eruption in human history. Perhaps the ash was accompanied by huge waves that swept across the eastern Mediterranean islands and shores, wiping out everything on Crete.

However, this is just a guess, until now, the maze mystery, there is still no convincing accurate version. The riddle of the maze will be solved any day, it seems that it remains to be studied by historians in all countries.