Mycenae, Greece

Mycenae is the oldest and one of the most dramatic of the ancient sites in the Peloponnese, a Bronze Age palace fortress whose massive stone walls seem to grow naturally out of the rocky hill they crown. This was the citadel of Agamemnon, the legendary king who led the Greeks against Troy, and the setting for some of the darkest tragedies of Greek myth. Even though most of the buildings are gone, the surviving foundations, the great Lion Gate and the royal tombs give a powerful sense of a civilization that flourished more than three thousand years ago.

The site lies in the northeastern Peloponnese, in the hills above the plain of Argolis, a short drive inland from the coastal town of Nafplion. The palace was first constructed around 1600 BC and occupies a commanding position hidden among higher hills, invisible until you are almost upon it, yet able to see for miles across the plain and toward the Gulf of Argolis. That combination of concealment and command is exactly why the site was chosen.

The Cyclopean Walls

The fortifications of Mycenae are built of enormous stone blocks fitted together without mortar, a style later Greeks called cyclopean because they believed only the giant Cyclopes could have moved stones of such size. The walls run along the edge of the hill above deep gullies, forming a fortress that was almost impossible to approach unseen. Standing among them conveys how defensible this stronghold was, set right at the edge of a cliff where invaders could be spotted long before they arrived.

From the ramparts the view opens across the fertile plain of Argolis, the same landscape the rulers of Mycenae once controlled. In its day this citadel was the seat of an overlord who presided over a loose federation extending across much of the Peloponnese and influencing the wider Greek world. This was, in many ways, the beginning of Greek civilization.

The Lion Gate

The monumental entrance to the citadel is known as the Lion Gate, named for the great relief that fills the triangle above the lintel. Two lions, their bodies facing a central pillar, stand as the royal emblem of the last kings of Mycenae. The lion always stood for royalty and power, and the pillar between them likely represents the palace itself, an assertion that the king's right to rule was divinely granted.

Carved around 1250 BC, this is the oldest monumental relief in all of Europe. The lions' heads are missing, but they were made separately and would have faced outward toward anyone approaching. The gate is flanked by a defense tower that narrows the entrance, forcing attackers to advance a few at a time where they could be met from the sides. Walking through it still gives the feeling of entering a royal citadel.

The Palace and Grave Circle

Inside the walls, the foundations of the palace remain, along with terracing and the outlines of noble rooms. The royal apartments were once coated in painted plaster and decorated stucco, arranged around porches, vestibules, large halls and a reception courtyard on the west side of the complex. The setting, high on its hill with the plain spread out below, makes clear why this was the heart of Mycenaean power.

Just inside the Lion Gate lies Grave Circle A, a royal burial ground excavated in the nineteenth century by Heinrich Schliemann, who uncovered gold funeral masks and other treasures now among the great highlights of the National Archaeological Museum in Athens. The circle of upright slabs marking the graves is still clearly visible, with the remains of houses and other Mycenaean structures nearby.

The Beehive Tombs

Below the citadel are the beehive tombs, monumental burial chambers built of concentric rings of stone rising to a pointed dome. Nine survive at Mycenae, the work of a people who created these enduring structures in the thirteenth century BC, still within the Bronze Age. The largest are approached through a long walled passage cut into the hillside, leading to a towering doorway and the vast domed chamber within, an engineering achievement that stood for over three thousand years.

Mycenae pairs naturally with a visit to nearby Nafplion, where most travelers spend the night, and with the theater of Epidavros a short distance away. Together they make one of the richest days in the Peloponnese, moving from the Bronze Age fortress of legend to the elegant Venetian harbor town on the gulf below.