Knossos (Ancient Greek: Κνωσός, Knōsós, [knoˈsos]), also romanized Cnossus, Gnossus, and Knossus, is the main Bronze Age archaeological site at Heraklion, a modern port city on the north central coast of Crete.

The site was excavated and the palace complex found there partially restored under the direction of Arthur Evans in the earliest years of the 20th century.

The mansion Evans had built on its grounds, Villa Ariadne, for the use of the archaeologists, was briefly the home of the Greek government in exile during the Battle of Crete in World War II.

There are basically two accounts of the tale, one deriving from a letter written by Heinrich Schliemann in 1889, to the effect that in 1877 the "Spanish Consul," Minos K., excavated "in five places."

[5] This version is based on the 1881 letters of William James Stillman, former consul for the United States in Crete, and coincidentally a good friend of Arthur Evans from their years as correspondents in the Balkans.

After Kalokairinos, several noted archaeologists attempted to preempt the site by applying for a firman, but none was granted by the then precarious Ottoman administration in Crete.

Based on the script he was finding everywhere, which matched that of the stones he had purchased in Athens and the marks on the walls at Knossos, Evans made up his mind.

[8] After an exploration of Lasithi, or eastern Crete (coincidentally the Muslim half), with John Myres in 1895, the two returned to London in 1896 to write about the Bronze Age forts they had discovered there, under the very shadow of looming civil war.

Much later, when he inherited his father's considerable estate, his wealth would be restored, and then some, but in 1905 he had to cancel the excavation of 1906 and return to England to find ways to generate income from Youlbury.

The term 'palace' may be misleading: in modern English, it usually refers to an elegant building used to house a high-ranking individual, such as a head of state.

Before the new Constitution went into effect, the French School of Archaeology under Théophile Homolle was under the impression that it had the right to excavate, based on a previous claim of André Joubin.

In view of Evans' activity on behalf of the cause of Cretan freedom, the Prince decided in his favor, provided he finished paying for the site.

Evans also hired, at Hogarth's recommendation, an architect at the beginning of his career, then at the British School at Athens, David Theodore Fyfe.

On March 23, 1900, Evans, Hogarth, Fyfe, and Alvisos Pappalexakis, a second foreman, staged a donkey parade from Heraklion to Kephala Hill.

Realising that he could not trust these fragile artefacts to the unskilled diggers, Evans hired Ioannis Papadakis, a Byzantine fresco restorer, to supervise the delicate excavation.

Some severe difficulties appeared in the second season, forcing a decision that split archaeological practice, but as far as Knossos was concerned, Evans and his team had no choice.

He had just ridden the donkey extensively over the mountains of Crete in his own exploration of the area, sleeping on boards with a thin mattress.

He proposed a derivation of labyrinth from the name of an Egyptian king instead, attempting to "pull rank" on Evans as a scholar, referring to his views as "childish."

Evans propped up more walls, discovered the sanitation system with the first flush toilet, and uncovered a cache of objects in precious materials, such as the ivory figurines.

A decade after his death Carl Blegen and others were to make charges that Evans persecuted Mackenzie to cover up errors concerning the date of the Knossos tablets.

Mackenzie could not find work, Blegen and others asserted, because Evans' Old Harrovian network blacklisted him, not because he was an alcoholic or could not be trusted with excavation funds.

Evans replaced him with Christian Charles Tyler (CCT) Doll, another architect, whom he set to rebuilding the Grand Staircase before it collapsed.

Subsequently, Evans had a malarial night hallucination, in which he saw the characters of the Grand Procession Fresco, led by the Priest-King, floating up and down the stairs.

They were further in the direction of enosis than Prince George, the High Commissioner, wished to go; for example, they provided for the departure of all foreign troops and their replacement with a native Cretan defense force.

For staff Evans hired Manolaki Akoumianakis as groundskeeper, and Kostis Chronakis as butler and handyman, with his wife, Maria, as cook and housekeeper.

In essence the school was to take over the excavation and operate it as a means of training students, though transfer had no immediate effect on the direction or the living arrangements.

Despite his previous invaluable contributions, MacKenzie had grown unreliable due to chronic illness including alcoholism, depression, and malaria.

He wore a glass eye and delighted in carrying a sword-cane, which parallels to Evans's short-sightedness and cane, Prodger, may well have been influential in the development of a rapport.

Even while working at Knossos, he developed commitments to the Egyptian Exploration Society, assuming directorship of the excavation at Amarna on an occasional basis.

In 1938 the British War Office interviewed the Knossos archaeologists for possible service in MI(R), Military Intelligence (Research), which was incorporated into Special Operations Executive (SOE) in 1940.