The Palace at Knossos was built on the slope of a low hill--the hill now known as “tou tselebe he kephala” or the Gentleman’s Head--which overlooks a secluded valley, three and a half miles from the north coast of the island. It thus escaped the roving eye of passing pirates, and at the same time commanded a view, from a neighbouring hill, of the Minoan ships which lay beached in the harbour. That fleet was practically its only defence. Knossos had no wall of fortification. Like pre-war London she depended on her island security and on her command of the seas. She was not exposed, as were the mainland cities of Mycenæ and Tiryns, and as modern Paris, to the danger of invasion by land. The lack of fortification was one of the first points that struck the excavator. In his report of the first season’s work (1900), Sir Arthur Evans says: “The extent and character of the outer walls are not yet apparent, but it is clear that while the compact castles of the Argolid were built for defence, this Cretan palace with its spacious courts and broad corridors was designed mainly with an eye to comfort and luxury” (_Journal of Hellenic Studies_, vol. xx, p. 168). There were minor fortifications, chiefly near the north gate, consisting of a guard-house and bastions, but strategic considerations did not contribute to the main architecture at all. It is an amazing structure. Built as long before Christ as the world has existed since Christ, it seems incredible that, for instance, it should have an underground drainage system. There is no doubt that Cretan architects were men of accomplishment. Mr. H. R. Hall says, in _The Ancient History of the Near East_ (p. 47), that, “in comparison with this wonderful building (the later palace at Knossos), the palaces of Egyptian Pharaohs were but elaborate hovels of painted mud. Knossos seems to be eloquent of the teeming life and energy of a young and beauty-loving people for the first time feeling its creative power.” The present ruins belong to three structures built at different times. The first was built in M.M.I, or before 2000 B.C., and was burnt down towards the end of M.M.II (about 1700 B.C.). It was later (about 1600 B.C.) rebuilt on a bigger scale, and this building in its turn, after some three hundred years of use, was remodelled and enlarged. Sir Arthur Evans made an important discovery in his 1922 excavation, which proves that the Middle Minoan III period was brought to a violent end by a big earthquake (about 1600 B.C.). He found some small houses overwhelmed by huge blocks--“some about a ton in weight, hurled some twenty feet from the Palace wall by what could only have been a great earthquake shock.”