The Zakros palace is the fourth largest Minoan palace and is situated in the centre of a fertile valley in a port of the same name on the east coast. The port of Zakros must have been one of the most important ports in Minoan Crete on account of its position which permitted direct contact with the East. On the other hand, the region was isolated from central Crete because of the Siteia mountain range.

The palace complex was built in about 2000 BC in the middle of a settlement and was destroyed around 1400 BC along with the other palaces of the second Palatial period. The construction of the palace in general, built with local limestone domes, appears to be the most improvised of the palaces in central Crete. However, its planning has much in common with the other palaces, such as the central court, the complex of apartments over four wings and the perfectly designed drainage system.
The central court is smaller than that of the other palaces and its orientation has a slight north-eastern inclination. Access to the palace was possible from four entrances. The main entrance was on the north-eastern side, that is on the side of the port. This entrance led to the central court via a stepped walkway. The public apartments occupied the west wing and had decorated floors, a banqueting hall, a large ritual room with decorated walls of coloured plaster, lustral basins and a sacred treasury. The archive was in the same wing. It was also the place where Linear B tablets were discovered, as well as storerooms and workshops. The private quarters which were connected by polythyra and a lustral basin were in the east wing. In the south wing there was a group of workshops for masonry, ivory artifacts, faience processing and probably a perfumery too, which communicated with the central court.
Many important finds were uncovered at Zakros, including some masterpieces of Minoan art, such as the fine stone rhyta, bronze swords with gold nails, and the workshop tools tell us much about Late Minoan technology. Some finds such as the unprocessed pieces of elephant tusk (probably of Syrian origin) and the copper ingots from Cyprus shed light on the commercial relations of Zakros with the East.