The Minoan Palace of Knossos as Landscape Ritual
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

Background Information
Traditionally, landscape ritual was an archaeological track dedicated to ceremonial reasons. Most of the ritual landscapes across the world were constructed around the Neolithic and Bronze Ages periods (Soetens et al., 2002). The word ritual landscape emerged in the 1980BC, which was influenced by the study and exploration of monuments and sites associated with the classification, dating, and political territories (Soetens et al., 2002). Typically, these landscapes were linked with myths, ancestors, homes of spiritual essences, and much more, which influenced people’s life (Soetens et al., 2002). Due to this connection, the landscape’s ritual was perceived as a place of protection and renewal, and thus, they were treated with a lot of respect. Therefore, the ritual landscape was treated as a sacred place that people are connected to their gods, ancestors, and other spiritual beings (Blakolmer, 2017). One of the most famous ritual landscapes is the Minoan Palace of Knossos. Geographically, Günkel-Maschek (2020) illustrates that Minoan Palace is located in the south of the current Heraklion, which is near the coast of Crete. In this land, the Archanes river cut across up to sea at Katsabas. Overall, the landscape of Minoan Palace covers about 150,000 square feet, which is twice as large as the football field, as illustrated by Günkel-Maschek (2020). However, the Minoan Palace of Knossos is 22,000 meters squared (Günkel-Maschek, 2020).
In the same way, the landscape ritual was built by civilians, who were first to appear in Europe. Landscape ritual became prominent in the early 20th century after it was excavated and restored by a group of British archaeologists, which was led by Arthur Evans. Günkel-Maschek (2020) demonstrates that the popularity of Minoan Palace was driven by good sites, unlike other locations in Crete, which gave people a remarkable sight. Even though there were other palaces in Crete, there was none that matched Minoan, and this was influenced by its size (Soetens et al., 2002). The approach forms a good base for enhancing equality and building relationship between different groups that participated in the construction process. The restoration of Knossos has been linked with many positive effects, especially on the environment. Numerous activities were deployed in the designing and construction of this palace.

Objectives of the Study
⦁ To explore the architecture context of Minoan Palace.
⦁ To Examine the construction aspects that were used in Minoan Palace.
⦁ To determine how the building influenced the development of other landscape rituals.