A 3-foot-wide kernos (offering stand) with 34 small hollows around its edge was found in Mallia’s courtyard. Like the palaces of Knossos, Phaistos and Kato Zakro, the royal palace of Mallia was reconstructed on a grand scale following a devastating earthquake that struck Crete around 1700 B.C. The rebuilt palace had a rectangular central court abutted by officials’ quarters to the west and by the royal family’s private quarters to the east.