The palate and the town of Zakros , which was a commercial port, were built at the end Is Crête. At the beginning of the thousand-year-old IIe, the site sees the emergence of an urban center which gives rise to then a palate, whose vestiges were put at the day in 1962 by Nikolaos Plato. This first palate, following the example three other palates crétois, Cnossos, Malia and Phaistos, is rather badly known. It was built towards -1700/-1650 and is destroyed with those of Cnossos, Malia and Phaistos, probably following a Earthquake. The palate is rebuilt at once before being finally destroyed second once, like the others, towards -1450 (One finds also -1370/-1350). The vestiges make it possible nevertheless to affirm that they are monumental buildings.

The palate extends on a surface from 7.000 m ². Construction and the decorations seem to have been rather poor what lets think of the specialists that this palate forever sheltered a King. But rather a dignitary responsible for the foreign trade or fleet. The palate has a rectangular central court and four wings of which most important are those of the East and the West. Around the court are organized functional districts comprising of the storerooms and the parts with religious function. There are four entries, most imposing is that of the port (Door Is). The central court with the characteristic not to be directed North-South as in the other palates, one finds a furnace bridge and workshops there. It seems that one prepared perfumes there. The Western wing is made up of the sanctuary, where copper ingots and three defenses of elephants were found, and of two big rooms where one discovered inter alia, the Rhyton in the shape of head of bull and the bronze tools.