Zakros (Kato Zakros), on Crete’s remote eastern coast, was the fourth of the great Minoan palaces, alongside Knossos, Phaistos, and Malia. Its sheltered harbor made it an important hub for trade with Egypt, the Near East, and Cyprus, evidenced by imported raw materials such as ivory, bronze, and elephant tusks found on site. Unlike Knossos, Zakros was never looted or reoccupied after its destruction (likely by the same volcanic and seismic events that devastated Minoan Crete around 1450 BC), so excavators, led by Greek archaeologist Nikolaos Platon starting in 1961, found many of its treasures still in place, including exquisite stone vessels, bronze tools, and a rock-crystal rhyton considered one of the finest examples of Minoan carving. [Editor’s note: no old-site source material was found for this page. This paragraph was drafted as a placeholder using general reference sources and should be reviewed/expanded by Dr. Siegel.]