In a site dominating the Messara plain, on a spur of the Mount Ida range, stand the remains of the Minoan palace of Phaestos, built, according to legend, by Rhadamanthus. Excavations have revealed two sequential buildings, the first dating from 1900-1700 BC, while the second, more recent, is analogous in plan to the structure at Knossos. For 17 centuries, Phaestos was an extraordinary city, whose influence extended over the whole of Crete.