when was the climax of the minoan culture?

The climax of Minoan culture was at the very time of its destruction, about 1500 bc. It was at this time that recent archaeological discoveries show massive destruction from tsunamis striking the north coast of Crete. These finds show that in about 1500 tsunamis hundreds of feet tall struck the island. In the debris layers from the waves one finds pottery dating to this period, bones which have been carbon dated dated to 1500, remains of sealife on the hills and mountains of Crete that date to 1500 bc and, throughout this layer is Theran pumice which has been chemically confirmed to come from the 1500 eruption of Thera. Also buildings have had their east to west(walls that faced the sea) walls blown out, north to south walls have survived. After these events there was an attempt to rebuild in areas but, discoveries show that another wave of destruction at the hand of man soon followed as most of the buildings of this period are destroyed by violence and fire. it is believed the mainland Greeks attacked in about 1400 bc and exterminated or conquered what was left of the Minoans. B 1250 bc Homer recounts that 80 Black ships sailed with Agamemnon to Troy, clearly Crete was a Mycenaean state.

Prior to all this destruction the Minoans lived the high life their fleet was supreme and they were the traffickers of trade in the Mediterranean. To this day no Minoan city has ever been found with defensive walls, clearly only by command of the sea could the defense of the cities be assurred, the navy had to be supreme. Much like the Britian's Royal Navy in the 1800s ad. In fact a great treasure known as the Toad Treasure was found in Egypt dating from the Middle Kingdom, about 1800 bc demonstrated Minoan connections to Egypt. Otherr discoveries quickly reinforced the importance and existence of Minoan shipping. Then all of a sudden they stopped coming. The Egyptians being river dweller's couldn't understand what happened, although Egypt's northern coast must have also been devastated as Theran ash has been found in the delta and certainly the great tsunamis must have reached Egypt as well as all of the Eastern Mediterranean. Is the eruption of Thera remembered as the basis of the 10 plauges of Moses? In the 6th century bc the Greek lawgiver Solon while in exile heard a story about a great civilization that was destroyed in a single day and night of misfortune. He took the story back to Greece were a descendent of his named Plato called it Atlantis.

The Minoans were on Crete from 2700BC until about 1500BC. The Mycenians from the mainland and the Greek Archepelago took over the maritime trade in about 1600BC and by 1700BC had over-run the Minoan civilization on Crete. The Mycenians lasted as the rulers of Crete until about 1100BC.

Possible causes for the decline of the Minoans are natural disasters like a volcano (Mount Thera) erupting, but I tend to blame it more on a loss of control over the trade between Greece and Egypt.