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At the end of the third millennium, around the 20th century BC, on the amazing island of Crete suddenly blossomed civilization, traces of which were revealed only at the dawn of the XX century AD The first cities in Europe appeared on Crete, were built palaces, writing arose; the Cretan state contained own regular army (a mural was found in the palace of Knossos, which depicts a detachment of black warriors led by white commander (blacks have long inhabited Crete). Knoss located on the northern coast of the island, has become the most powerful city where the first stones of the legendary Labyrinth were laid. Whole island was covered with a network of roads converging to the Labyrinth. The lords of Crete had a huge powerful fleet that reliably protected the approaches to the island, – only this can explain the lack of walls around Cretan palaces and cities and watchtowers on the coast. The Cretan fleet reigned supreme in the Mediterranean, subjugating the power of Knossos kings to many lands. 
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The Greek historian Thucydides wrote of Minos: “The rulers of the lands, subjugated by him, at the first request he was supplied by galleys for Cretan fleet. “The Cretan power rose almost to the level of such a colossus of the ancient world as Egypt. Products of Cretan masters archaeologists find in the valley of the Tigris and Euphrates, in the Pyrenees, in the north Balkan Peninsula in Egypt. On the fresco of the tomb of one of the entourage of Pharaoh Thutmose III depicts the ceremonial arrival ambassadors of Crete, and the ancient name of Crete – Keftiu – is often found in business Egyptian papyrus.
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It would seem that nothing could shake the power of Crete. But in at the end of the second millennium BC a catastrophe occurs – mysterious, still not fully explained. To the ruins the cities of Knossos, Festus, Agna Triada, Palekastro, Gurnia are transformed. At the same time, as if in one day, in an instant. From millennia accumulated power there was nothing left. The empire of Minos has perished.
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Sir Arthur Evans arrived in Crete in 1900 to find out one minor issue related to reading some hieroglyphs. One of the greatest archaeologists, world famous scientist, honorary and full member of various academies and societies, then it was almost forty years old, but he was already a venerable scientist, Oxford graduate and connoisseur of ancient Egyptian writing.
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On the first day of his stay on the island of Evans visited the ruins Knossos. Not far from the ruins dating back to ancient times, he I saw earthen mounds, which, as intuition told him, hid inside the remains of some ancient buildings. Evans grabbed the shovel. Literally a few hours later, the outlines appeared in the excavation ancient building … and from that moment on over a quarter centuries, almost without a break, he conducted excavations of Knossos, for he believed – and declared this publicly that the building he discovered was ruins the legendary Labyrinth! The very one in which the monster lived – half-bull, half-man – the Minotaur, where the king’s daughter brought the hero Theseus Minosa Ariadne.
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Now in any work devoted to the history of Crete, you can see detailed plan of the Palace of Minos, compiled as a result of excavations Evans, his students and colleagues. From the incomprehensible depths of millennia a great civilization arose – so ancient that for contemporaries Homer, she was already a thousand-year-old legend. Evans called her Minoan. The palace at Knossos was recognized by all archaeologists as outstanding Monument of highly developed Minoan culture, residence the legendary king Minos. The magnificent murals on the walls of this the palace, comfortable bathing facilities, sewage system and numerous pantries have argued that the palace refers to the “Golden Minoan era” that here, as in a certain antique Paris, once reigned reign supreme joy and carelessness.
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Almost everyone got used to these ideas, when suddenly German Hans Georg Wunderlich, professor of geology at the University of Stuttgart made the statement that Knossos Palace did not know the festive days that he was on the contrary a place of mourning and sadness. He claims, that the palace was a place of worship of death. Here ” kept the remains dead and prepared mummies. He believes the so-called the queen’s bath was actually her sarcophagus that large painted clay vessels were not intended for grain and oils, as previously thought, but were urns and stored in themselves the remains of the dead that are recesses similar to baths that can meet in the so-called “pantries”, in fact, were ditches in which corpses were prepared, preparing them for mummification.
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The stumbling block that made Wunderlich so decisively reconsider the idea of the Knossos palace, became a cast, many details of the Knossos building made of plaster. Wunderlich, geologist, found that in this palace the stairs are just like all bathroom floors rooms made of plaster.
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Deeply puzzled by this circumstance, he could not immediately understand why the Minoans, people, according to archaeologists, highly civilized, they used gypsum in the construction of the palace – Is the material soft and easily destroyed by water? Why didn’t they apply marble or limestone instead? Wunderlich began to explore the palace further and discovered many strange things. Why, for example, in Knossos Palace did not have a single kitchen? Why are the so-called the dwellings of King Minos and his queen are in a dark basement, instead having to be on the top floor full of light and air? At the palace has no stables and there are no buildings where would stand chariots. Why, finally, these huge clay vessels, supposedly intended for grain and oil, so walled up that of them almost nothing to get?
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Wunderlich hypothesized: stairs are made of soft malleable gypsum because builders did not expect any busy traffic on them. Huge amphoras did not serve as repositories stocks, and in the premises in the basement, no one has ever lived. Kitchens, stables and courtyards for chariots were not needed here, for the palace was not intended for living people. Knossos palace was the palace of death, its premises are crypts where the bodies were preserved dead Minoans. The palace was destroyed by grave robbers. Of course, Wunderlich’s findings were objected by most archaeologists and cultural historians, although some of them had previously believed that some of the premises of the Palace of Minos were dungeons, and some served as the place of sacrifice of the sacred bull personifying himself … Zeus himself. Only in the writings of the outstanding religious scholar Mircea Eliade can find indications of Wunderlich’s innocence.
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Eliade found a lot of evidence that in Crete, in addition to the cult of the bull, the cult of death and beliefs associated with the posthumous life of the soul. Zeus was born and died in Crete, in connection with which Cretans annually became participants in the mysterious mystery “rebirth” of God. From all over the island, wherever they live, people traveled along the roads to the Palace of Minos in Knossos to make the necessary sacrifice and take part in secret and bloody rituals. Irina IERUSALIMOVA
Egypt Stones Islands
