Near the palace, a Minoan roadway leads to a crypt. Steps at its end lead down to meeting rooms, still fitted with benches, which were probably part of the Prytaneion, where the magistrates met. It is flanked by storerooms. Other religious buildings and houses (ground floor and basement often well preserved) have been found on the outskirts. The Krysolakos (''gold pit'') necropolis, source of the famous bee pendant now in the Herakleion Museum, is thought to have been a royal graveyard.