kingdom · Greece and the Aegean

Palace State of Zakros

1900 BCE – 1450 BCE (approx.) · capital Zakros

The easternmost Minoan palace on Crete, a harbour centre for trade with Egypt and the Levant, found unplundered with its treasures in place.

Origins

Zakros lies in a sheltered bay at the eastern tip of Crete, a natural harbour facing Egypt, Cyprus and the Levant. A settlement existed in the Early Minoan period, and a palace was built c. 1900 BCE. The surviving palace, smaller than Knossos or Phaistos, dates mostly from the Neopalatial period after c. 1700 BCE.

Rule and society

The palace followed the standard Minoan plan with a central court, storerooms, workshops, a lustral basin and a cistern room. It likely controlled trade in copper, ivory and elephant tusks, some of which were found on site. Its treasury held stone ritual vessels, including a rock-crystal rhyton, and Linear A tablets show local record-keeping.

Decline and legacy

Zakros was destroyed by fire c. 1450 BCE and abandoned so suddenly that it was never looted. It was not reoccupied as a palace. Nikolaos Platon excavated it from 1961, recovering one of the richest collections of Minoan objects found in place.

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Cite this page
APA
The Epoch Institute. (2026). Palace State of Zakros. In The Epoch Institute States Register. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/palace-state-of-zakros
MLA
“Palace State of Zakros.” The Epoch Institute States Register, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/palace-state-of-zakros. Accessed .
Chicago
The Epoch Institute. “Palace State of Zakros.” The Epoch Institute States Register. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/palace-state-of-zakros.
Harvard
The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Palace State of Zakros’, The Epoch Institute States Register. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/palace-state-of-zakros (Accessed: ).

Last reviewed October 2026Random state ↻