 In the First Palace Period (around 2,000 BC), the urban area reached a size of as many as 18,000 people.In its peak, the palace and surrounding city boasted a population of 100,000 people shortly after 1,700 BC.The name Knossos was formerly Latinized as Cnossus or Cnossos, and occasionally Knossus, Gnossus, or Gnossos but is now almost always written Knossos.