New £420m airport project in Europe faces threat from 4,000-year-old ancient ruins
Crete's ancient Minoan civilization is thought by experts to have built a 4,000 year-old complex at a site earmarked for a new airport radar station.
A 4,000 year old hilltop building in Crete threatens to derail plans for a major airport on the Greek island. Archaeologists discovered the ruins of the 19,000 sq ft structure, which resembles a wheel from above.
Crete's ancient Minoan civilization is thought by experts to have built the complex, which is at a site earmarked for a new airport radar station being built in Kastelli.
The new flights hub will replace Heraklion, the second biggest airport in Greece, and process 18 million travellers per year.
Archaeologists don't yet know what the hilltop structure was used for. It is still under excavation and has no known Minoan parallels. For the time being, experts speculate it could have been used for a ritual or religious function.
Ringed by eight stepped stone walls up to 1.7 meters (5.6 feet) high, the inner structure was split into smaller, interconnecting spaces and may have had a shallow conical roof.
Greek Culture Minister, Lina Mendoni, has vowed that the find will be preserved and another location found for the rader station.
She highlighted the value and importance of Greece's cultural heritage while recognising the potential for growth in a new airport.
An archaeologist, Ms Mendoni said: "It's possible to go ahead with the airport while granting the antiquities the protection they merit."
In a statment, Greece's Culture Ministry said the building's size, architectural layout and careful construction required considerable labour, specialised know-how and a robust central administration.
The Ministry said the building was used between 2000-1700BC and was founded around the time Crete's first palaces were being built, including those at Knossos and Phaistos.
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Some of its features compare to early Minoan beehive tombs surmounted by stepped, conical roofs and burial mounds found in other parts of Greece.
Greece's rich cultural heritage often results in conflicts of interest during construction projects.
At the end of the last century, an entire hilltop fortified settlement from the third millennium BC was excavated and then destroyed during construction work for Athens International Airport.
At least another 35 archaeological sites have been uncovered during work on the new Kastelli Airport and its road connections, the ministry said.
