The Greeks were great sailors. As the Greeks were out and about, sailing the Mediterranean Sea in search of food, trade, and adventure, they were also on the lookout for new places to build Greek cities and outposts. 

While sailing about, the Greeks stumbled across a tribe of people living on the island of Crete. These people, the Minoans, were a very advanced civilization for the times. They had a strong navy, which is probably why the Greeks never succeeded in colonizing the Minoan people.

The Minoan king lived in the capital city of Knossos, in a maze of a palace with 1500 rooms! It was a gorgeous palace. But during Minoan times, even poor people on the island of Crete had 4-room houses, with running water for drinking and bathing, and bathrooms that flushed! This was a very advanced civilization.

The ancient Minoans did have a written language. Far more than the records they left behind, the paintings on the walls of the palace at Knossos share the daily life of these ancient people. Some walls were painted with pictures of starfish and water scenes, much as you would expect from a civilization that lived on an island. 

But some walls were painted with pictures of young people, both boys and girls, jumping over bulls. Scholars believed that bull jumping must have been a very popular sport in Minoan times.

Around 1700 BCE, an earthquake hit Crete. Much of the Minoan civilization was destroyed. The Minoans rebuilt. Around 1500 BCE, a volcano erupted near the island of Crete. Tidal waves followed the eruption. 

The Minoans might have been wiped out by natural disaster or by war. There were warrior tribes on the mainland of Greece. But scholars believe the tidal waves certainly weakened them. Whatever the cause, around 1500 BCE, this civilization disappeared from the island of Crete.

The storytellers in ancient Greece loved to tell stories about the ancient Minoans. Some of the stories were about the mythical creature, the Minotaur - a mix of man and beast - who supposed lived on the island of Crete long, long ago.