The oldest city in Greece is set among arid hills in the southeast of the Herakleion plain. With its chequerboard of courtyards, corridors, stairways, upper floors, chambers, royal apartments and shrines, the mythical lair of the terrible Minotaur is well and truly a labyrinth. The excavation of the site in the early 20C marked a major step in our understanding of the Minoan civilisation. A civilisation steeped in legend, which still seems to haunt the site.