. Discovery. Science. DISCOVERY 247 it to the most profitable account. Her geographical position as a sea-girt isle was such that, while being exempt from the dominating and overshadowing influence of Egypt, she profited by both of the fertilising streams of inspiration that had their source in ; ' Neither did Crete owe the origins of her culture entirely to Egypt, for, as the same authority shows, she " was also affected in a most intimate way by the eastern (nortliern) stream of culture from Asia ISIinor, where the influences of Mesopotamia and S\Tia were blended with that of
. Discovery. Science. DISCOVERY 247 it to the most profitable account. Her geographical position as a sea-girt isle was such that, while being exempt from the dominating and overshadowing influence of Egypt, she profited by both of the fertilising streams of inspiration that had their source in ; ' Neither did Crete owe the origins of her culture entirely to Egypt, for, as the same authority shows, she " was also affected in a most intimate way by the eastern (nortliern) stream of culture from Asia ISIinor, where the influences of Mesopotamia and S\Tia were blended with that of ; Let us for a moment examine some of the features of Cretan culture. The palace unearthed at Knossos is an amazing structure. In reality the ruins consist of three palaces built up one on top of the other. The topmost palace, in which the Cretans reached the height of their architecture, was " a square building covering about five acres, or as big an area as Buckingham Palace, and had a flat roof. In shape it was a hollow rectangle, with a central court, measuring nearly two hundred feet from north to south, and not quite half as much in breadth. . Beyond the west wing there was another courtâ the meeting-place for the people of the town and the people of the palace ; and out to the north-west a smaller buildingâthe Little Palaceâconnected with the palace proper by what Sir Arthur Evans has called ' the oldest paved road in Europe,' while a little to the north-east was the Royal ; Near the palace was a theatre, whose rising tiers of steps and raised platform have been brought to the light of day. The palace walls were built of gypsvim coated with lime-plaster. The palace's systena of draining was extremely elaborate. Into the many details of its architecture we cannot enter here. The contemporary palace at Phsestos, excavated by the Italian Archaeological Mission, must in many ways have equalled the magnificence of that at Knossos. It was built o
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