Where Is The Labyrinth Of The Island Of Crete?

The labyrinth on the island of Crete was traditionally believed to be at Knossos. Knossos is today the largest archaeological Bronze Age site located at Crete. The site is a popular tourist destination today. During the fourteenth and seventeenth century the governors of Crete visited a large quarry that was located in the area. The area lied in between Kasteli and Gortys.

The Minotaur that was trapped within the labyrinth was believed to be the son of the wife of King Minos and the bull that Poseidon gave to Minos. The wooden cow that was used by Pasiphae to copulate with the bull and the labyrinth in which the bull was trapped by Minos were both built by Daedalus. It was so said in Greek mythology that Minos had asked Poseidon for a bull to sacrifice for him as offering, but on getting the bull Minos coveted it for himself. Poseidon cursed Minos by making his wife fall in love with the bull.

I am not sure whether any traces of the labyrinth were found in the ruins of Knossos.  It is possible that the legend of the minotaur relates to religious worship of bulls practiced by the ancient Minoans.  Bull worship was very common in the Ancient near East.  For example the head of the Canaanite pantheon, "El" was a bull.  But the ancient Minoan civilization on the island of Crete was overthrown in twenty-four hours as a result of the explosive eruption of a super-volcano under the island of Santorini, probably at around the same time the Israelites made their Exodus from Egypt under the leadership of Moses.  Some of the Minoans who made their escape from the overthrow, perhaps because they were in ocean-going ships well away from the disaster at the time, settled in Palestine.  They were known as Philistines to the Israelites and gave them a lot of trouble because they could work iron, while the Israelites at that time were still in the bronze age.  Eventually they were subdued and basically absorbed into the nation by King David, who had a division of crack Minoans, called the Cherethites and Pelethites in this instance, in his personal bodyguard.