Stairwell in the residential quarter of the palace at Knossos (Crete), Greece, ca. 1700–1400 BC. The Knossos palace was complex in elevation as well as plan. It had at least three stories on all sides of the court. Minoan columns taper from top to bottom, the opposite of Egyptian and Greek columns.

Minoan woman or goddess (La Parisienne), from the palace at Knossos (Crete), Greece, ca. 1450–1400 BC.  Archaeological Museum, Herakleion. Frescoes decorated the Knossos palace walls. This fragment depicts a woman or a goddes —perhaps a statue—with a large frontal eye in her profile head, as seen also in Near Eastern and Egyptian art.

Bull-leaping, from the palace at Knossos (Crete), Greece, ca. 1450– 1400 BC, Fresco. Archaeological Museum, Herakleion. The subjects of the Knossos frescoes are often ceremonial scenes, like this one of bull-leaping. The women have fair skin and the man has dark skin, a common convention in ancient painting.