Joanna Lumley TV - Hector Hugh Munro - The World at War TV - Ancient X Files TV - World War II: The Complete History TV - Eric Cline - Will Durant - Mysteryquest TV - Costas Synolakis - Christos Doumas - Ancient Apocalypse TV - Floyd McCoy - Timewatch TV - Arthur Evans - Atlantis TV - The Truth Behind: Atlantis TV - Greece with Simon Reeve TV - Bettany Hughes TV - Lost Worlds: Atlantis TV - Janina Ramirez TV - Ancient Mysteries TV -
Crete – the largest of all the Greek islands ... Everybody who traded had to come past. Joanna Lumley’s Greek Odyssey III, ITV 2011
The people of Crete unfortunately make more history than they can consume locally. Hector Hugh Munro, Chronicles of Clovis, 1911
The British tried to hold Crete as a naval base. With complete command of the air the Germans attacked Crete with sixteen thousand parachutists. The first large-scale airborne assault in the history of warfare ... The Germans were able to advance against a bigger commonwealth force. Air power won the battle ... Another evacuation. The World at War 4/26: Alone, BBC 1973
A terrifying monster – half-man, half-bull. According to ancient myth the Minotaur was imprisoned inside a labyrinth where hapless human victims were sacrificed. But could the bloodcurdling story be linked to a real place? Ancient X Files: Holy Grail & the Minotaur, National Geographic 2010
The Nazis used the tunnels to store ammunition during the Second World War. ibid.
A strange disc covered in strange signs dating back to an ancient civilisation over 3,000 years old. The Phaistos Disc has stunned historians ever since it was discovered. Ancient X Files s1e2: Blood of Christ & Mystery Disc, National Geographic 2010
The disc displays 242 mysterious characters arranged in groups leading in a spiral towards the centre, and covering both sides. ibid.
On 22nd May the Germans attacked the island in an assault that was to be unique in military history. Crete was to be the only campaign that was begun and fought to conclusion using airborne forces alone. On 22nd May the skies of Crete filled with paratroopers ... German losses in Crete were so high that the parachute forces were never again used as an independent force. World War II: The Complete History: The World Shall Hold Its Breath, Discovery 2009
There’s a place in the middle of the wine-dark sea called Crete, a lovely, fruitful land surrounded by the sea. Homer, Odyssey
The eruption of Santorini has been re-dated now, and took place probably about 1628 B.C. And 1628 means that the Exodus and the eruption are separated by about two hundred years. Professor Eric H Cline
It’s the first link in the European Chain. Will Durant, The Life of Greece
Santorini and Crete: the remains of a highly developed people dating back to 1,600 B.C. were found in 1931. They’re called the Minoans, and the similarities to Plato’s description of Atlantis were astonishing in many ways. Mysteryquest: The Lost City of Atlantis, History 2009
We don’t really know scientifically exactly what happened to Santorini ... We think that the volcano basically blew up and the entire Santorini was destroyed. With this collapse of the volcano, a huge tidal wave was triggered. And the tidal wave, the tsunami, travelled all the way to Crete and severely impacted the Minoans. Professor Costas Synolakis, engineer and tsunami specialist, University of Southern California
Trade was the main activity which produced wealth. And so we can say it was a sort of Hong Kong of the prehistoric Aegean. Professor Christos Doumas, Archaeological Society of Athens
Long before the ancient Greek empire flourished, Knossos was the biggest building in Europe. Here Minoans lived in luxury with Europe’s first paved roads, running water. From Crete, the Minoans controlled a vast trading empire. So powerful were their navies they lived centuries free from invasion. But when the Greeks from the mainland finally took over Crete, the Minoans’ wealth and power had disappeared. Their towns and palaces went up in flames. Ancient Apocalypse, Mystery of the Minoans, BBC 2001
The mystery here is what has happened. How and why has this been destroyed? What has caused this devastation here? Professor Floyd McCoy, University of Hawaii
Crete and Thera each had their own characteristics but they shared the same dress code, language, religious rituals and technical advances. Timewatch: Atlantis: The Evidence, BBC 2010
But if it wasn’t a tsunami, what then caused the destruction of the Minoan civilisation on Crete? The film shows how archaeologists revisited all the clues just like detectives reopening an old case. Decoding Disaster: A Timewatch Guide I, BBC 2017
To this early civilization of Crete as a whole I have proposed – and the suggestion has been generally adopted by the archaeologists of this and other countries – to apply the name ‘Minoan’. Arthur Evans
300 decibels ... Magma bombs ... Pyroclastic flows ... Tsunamis ... It would have taken only twenty minutes for the first tsunami to have reached Crete ... Three times larger than Krakatoa ... Global temperatures dipped ... Minoan society was shaken to the core ... Humans sacrificed. Atlantis, BBC 2011
On the Greek island of Crete most of Minoan civilisation was drowned by a tsunami. The Truth Behind: Atlantis, 2011
Crete has its own unique history and geography … 600,000 people live on Crete. The biggest cities are on the coast. Greece with Simon Reeve I, BBC 2018
My voyage takes me to the largest island in Greece … In ancient history Crete was a superpower. In myth it was famous birthplace of gods and myths. A Greek Odyssey with Bettany Hughes IV, Channel 5 2020
Knossos: this is a huge palace that covers over six acres … There are images of bulls everywhere here … Crete is home to of the most famous legends of all time: the Minotaur, half-man, half-bull. ibid.
3,500 years ago the world was rocked by the greatest volcanic eruption since recorded history. In the heart of the Mediterranean a peaceful island exploded with devastating force. At a stroke a whole civilisation was wiped from the face of the Earth. Then, at the turn of the 20th century, the remains of a spectacular palace was found on Crete. And on a neighbouring island a town was unearthed, preserved beneath thousands of tons of volcanic ash. Lost Worlds s1e2: Atlantis, History 2005
Few mysteries have sparked such obsession or given rise to so many extraordinary theories. ibid.
And above ground the engineering of the Palace of Knossos is every bit as sophisticated as that in Plato’s text. The palace contained 1,300 rooms spread over 4 floors interconnected by miles of passageways. ibid.
Researchers have developed a new theory that Santorini and Crete were both part of Atlantis. ibid.
I’ve come to the island of Crete to uncover one of the most contentious discovery stories of all time. Just over a century ago a rich Briton called Arthur Evans came here in search of the truth behind the most famous Greek myth of all – King Minos and the terrifying monster known as the Minotaur he kept hidden in the depths of his palace. Janina Ramirez, Raiders of the Lost Past s2e1, BBC 2021
He didn’t find a man-eating monster but what he did find were the ruins of Europe’s first civilisation lost for nearly three thousand years. He called them the Minoans. ibid.
Thera [Santorini] and Crete were at the centre of a huge Minoan trading network. Ancient Mysteries s1e4: Atlantis, Channel 5 2017