Editing Knossos (section)

=== Layout ===

[[File:Wall painting of grandstand or sacred grove and shrine from Knossos (north end of central court) - London BM - 02.jpg|thumb|250px|alt=The Grandstand Fresco|The ''Grandstand Fresco'' appears to show a ceremony taking place in the Central Court at Knossos.]]

Like other Minoan palaces, Knossos was arranged around a rectangular central court. This court was twice as long north-south as it was east-west, an orientation that would have maximized sunlight, and positioned important rooms towards the rising sun.<ref name=HitchcockHandbook>{{cite encyclopedia |last=Hitchcock |first=Louise|year=2012 |title=Minoan Architecture |editor-last=Cline |editor-first=Eric |encyclopedia=The Oxford Handbook of the Bronze Age Aegean |pages=189–199|publisher=Oxford University Press |doi=10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199873609.013.0014|isbn=978-0199873609}}</ref><ref name=LupackHandbook>{{cite encyclopedia |last1=Lupack |first1=Susan|year=2012 |title=Crete |editor-last=Cline |editor-first=Eric |encyclopedia=The Oxford Handbook of the Bronze Age Aegean |pages=251–262 |publisher=Oxford University Press |doi=10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199873609.013.0019|isbn=978-0199873609}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Architecture of Minoan Crete: Constructing Identity in the Aegean Bronze Age | first=John C. | last=McEnroe | location=Austin | publisher=University of Texas Press | year=2010 | pages=84–85}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |url=http://www.athenapub.com/11knoss.htm |title=The Palaces of Minos at Knossos |first=Colin F. |last=Macdonald |volume=3 |issue=3 |journal=Athena Review |publisher=Athena Publications, Inc. |year=2003 |access-date=25 July 2018  |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110524083709/http://www.athenapub.com/11knoss.htm |archive-date=24 May 2011 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

The central court is believed to have been used for rituals and festivals. One of these festivals is believed to be depicted in the ''Grandstand Fresco''. Some scholars have suggested that [[bull-leaping]] would have taken place in the courts, though others have argued that the paving would not have been optimal for the animals or the people, and that the restricted access points would have kept the spectacle too far out of public view.<ref name=HitchcockHandbook/><ref name=LupackHandbook/>

The {{convert|6|acre|m2}} of the palace included a theater, a main entrance on each of its four cardinal faces, and extensive storerooms.