One of the most advanced ancient civilisations that the world has ever seen is that of the Ancient Minoans. They enter the classical world through association with the Minotuar and the great maze of their King Minas. The Minotaur comes from a rather unlikely relationship between the King and Queen and prize bull. They keep their wayward half bull, half man son in a maze and regularly send in people they don’t like to occupy him and save them executing them.

Whilst the last part is myth the power of Knossos, the capital of the Minoans is certainly not. It is recognised that the bit about the Bull and the affair was made up by the mainland Greeks who were jealous of how the Minoans were living but a bit of bad propaganda was fine. The reason they chose the Bull was that the Minoans used them in a test of manliness. Minoan men would grab a charging bulls horn and leap onto its back.

The capital of Knossos was incredibly vast and complicated, which also gives rise to the labyrinth and Maze myth. It had beautiful art and frescoes of Minoan culture (including the Bull jumping) and even a working drains system. This was very efficient. You could imagine that they employed a decent Drainage Cleaning company like https://www.wilkinson-env.co.uk/cctv-drain-surveys-gloucester/. The Minoan civilization on Crete was very powerful but a terrible earthquake caused damage that slowed their progress and the mainland Greeks also began to learn from them and overtake them in skill.