U-Pb dating of detrital zircons separated from paragneiss of the Myrsini Crystalline Complex of eastern Crete yielded peaks in 207 Pb/ 206 Pb ages at 0.6, 0.8, 1.0, 2.0, and 2.5 Ga. A striking Mesoproterozoic age gap is present between 1.1 and 1.6 Ga. The new data are compatible with U-Pb zircon ages derived from surrounding crystalline complexes of the Cyclades, the Menderes Massif, Egypt, and the Levant. Possible provenances of the zircons of the eastern Mediterranean domains are the Sahara meta-craton, the Arabian-Nubian Shield, and the Kibaran belt of central Africa. Because the age spectra of the eastern Mediterranean crystalline complexes differ significantly from those of the Cadomian- and Avalonian-type terranes, they are regarded as a separate collection of peri-Gondwanan terranes referred to as Minoan terranes. In late Neoproterozoic to ?Cambrian times, the latter underwent Andean-type orogeny at the northern border of East Gondwana, close to Egypt and the Levant. There is no evidence that the Minoan terranes traveled for long distances in Phanerozoic times.