While approximately forty buildings have been uncovered at Akrotiri, there are six that have been given more attention than the others. The architecture and function of each building is different.
The largest building uncovered so far, Xeste 4, is three stories high and believed to be a public building because of its dimensions. The staircase had fragments of frescoes on either side depicting males ascending in a procession.
The second largest building, Xeste 3, was at least two stories high, with fourteen rooms on each floor. The rooms were decorated with paintings and some had more than one door. One room contained a "lustral basin", which indicates it was used for some sort of ritual.
The West House is a small, but well organized building. The rooms include storage rooms, a spacious room for weaving, a kitchen and mill, a room for storing clay pots, and a lavatory. The walls in the rooms were decorated with well preserved murals.
A group of four houses had walls decorated with lilies and swallows. In these buildings archeologists found imported pottery, precious stone and artifacts made from bronze.
The last of the buildings that have been examined more closely both contained beautiful wall paintings, such as the Boxing Boys, Ladies and the Papyrus, and the Fresco of the Monkeys. One of these buildings had a light-well constructed at the center, which is an interesting architectural feature that wasn't found in other buildings.
Source: Examiner





