Sanctuaries and temples
While what must be interpreted with Sir Arthur Evans as “temple repositories” were indeed found in the palace at Knossos, there is no evidence of a temple there - or practically anywhere else in Crete (with the possible exception of a strange building at Anemospilia: see below).
There may have been small shrines outside of the earliest palaces. Thus ritual paraphernalia, figurines and shrines were part of the Minoan religion, but seemingly not the major urban buildings which one associates with religion. The sanctuaries are those of the mountain peaks which seem to have played a major role in the religion. Significantly, the number of peak sanctuaries declined over the centuries and one of the most important surviving ones was that at Mount luktas near Knossos.The peak sanctuaries (Dietrich 1969, 1974; D. Jones 1999) were places where banquets and festivals took place. So much is clear from the archaeological traces. The seals found in the palaces and settlements of the plains also show women in rocky landscapes, and thus these can also be associated with the peak sanctuaries (as in Fig. 12.5). Among the inscriptions found at the peak sanctuaries are some thirty which give several versions of a libation formula celebrating one single goddess: Ja-sa-sa-ra (Younger & Rehak 2008: 177).