Pendlebury, John D.: A handbook to the palace of Minos at Knossos, with its dependencies (London)

PREFACE

IT has been evident for some time that there ought to
be a short guide to Knossos. Not only is the owner
of a 1909 Baedeker liable to be entirely at sea and to
wander in a state of complete bewilderment round
a labyrinth in many respects unrecognizable, but the
fortunate possessors of the Palace of Minos have hesi-
tated before hiring the pack animal necessary for
the transport of that monumental work round the
site.

Of course there is only one man who could have
written this guide as it ought to have been written—
Sir Arthur Evans—but in view of the Herculean labours
in which he is engaged, I hope that visitors will excuse
my temerity in making the attempt. How great my
debt has been both to Sir Arthur and to Dr. Mackenzie
only I can say. Without their guidance I should have
been as completely lost as Theseus without the clew of
Ariadne.

The plan of the guide is as follows. I have first given
an introductory Section on the history of the site,
mainly from the point of view of the architectural
development of the Palace. This, I think, was inevit-
able. Nobody wants either to be unexpectedly faced
with a totally meaningless combination of letters such
as 'Late M.M. Ill b' or to be held up while going
round the site by having to read a lot of information,
mostly quite irrelevant to his present position, about
the general layout of the Palace at a particular period.
I have therefore set this section first.

Then comes the grand tour of the Palace proper, by
what experience has proved the best route. Lastly
the outlying buildings are described.