An important series charting the history of sites, buildings and towns from their construction to the present day. Each title examines not only the physical history and uses of the site but also its broader context: its roles in political history, the history of scholarship and the popular imagination. Knossos is one of the most important archaeological sites in the ancient Mediterranean, It remained one of the largest settlements on the island of Crete from the Neolithic until late Roman times. And, aside from its size, it held a place of particular significance in the mythological imagination of Greece and Rome as the seat of King Minos, the location of the Labyrinth and the home of the Minotaur. Sir Arthur Evans' discovery of 'the Palace of Minos' has indelibly associated Knossos in the modern mind with the lost' civilisation of Bronze Age Crete. The allure of this lost civilisation' together with the considerable achievements of 'Minoan' artists and craftspeople, remains a major attraction both to scholars and to others outside the academic world as a bastion of a romantic approach to the past. In this volume, James Whitley provides an up-to-date guide to the site and its function from the Neolithic until the present day. This study includes a re-appraisal of Bronze Age palatial society, as well as an exploration of the history of Knossos in the archaeological imagination. In doing so he takes a critical look at the guiding assumptions of Evans and others, reconstructing how and why the received view of this ancient settlement has evolved from the Iron Age up to the modern era.