 It is suggested that they followed eastern models such as those at Ugarit on the Syrian coast and Mari on the upper Euphrates.The early palaces were destroyed during Middle Minoan II, sometime before c. 1,700, almost certainly by earthquakes to which Crete is prone.By c. 1,650, they had been rebuilt on a grander scale and the period of the second palaces (c. 1,650–c.