In a site dominating the Messara plain, on a spur of the Mount Ida massif, stand the remains of the Minoan palace of Phaestos, built by Rhadamanthus. Excavations by Italian archaeologists revealed two sequential buildings, the first dating to 2000-1650 BC, the second to 1650-1400 BC, analogous in plan to the structure at Knossos. For 17 centuries, Phaestos was an extraodinary city eclipsing the whole of Crete.