ANCIENT SITE OF TIRYNTHE

Tirynthe was one of the great centres of the Mycenaean civilization (1500-1100 BC). From the road linking Argos to Nafplion, one can even, without entering it, contemplate the citadel, built 18 m high, to understand its strategic position, but also the need for an architecture so strongly fortified to respond to enemy attacks. Since 1999, the site has been jointly classified with Mycenae as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The two cities shared the same fatal fate. Indeed, in the 12th century BC, they were both destroyed by an undetermined event. It is still unclear whether it was an earthquake, a civil war or a Dorian invasion.

History. This Mycenaean palace is very difficult to date. Indeed, it was inhabited in the Neolithic period and the first traces of dwellings date back to 2500 BC. The current ramparts were successively built between 1400 and 1200 BC. With so many archaeological resources and data, brilliantly discovered by the famous Schliemann in 1876, how can we not be sure of the date of construction? The answer can be found at a glance on the thickest ramparts of antiquity. Are such ramparts really human work? And this is where myths and legends once again try to explain the story. According to Pausanias, the famous historian, it could only be a work of Cyclops, hence the name given to such constructions: the cyclopean walls. It was therefore Proitos, brother of the king of the nearby Argos, who had the city built. It remained powerful during Antiquity, thanks to its strategic location, in the centre of everything and near the sea that came up to then, as well as thanks to its famous kings. It was from there that Eurystheus ordered Heracles to carry out his 12 works to redeem himself from the murder of the children he had had with Megara. But after many years of prosperity, Tirynthe declined, around 470 BC, destroyed by its close rival Argos.

Front door. Between the inner and outer walls, this main gate is of the same type as that of the lions in Mycenae. We can still see the two door jambs, as well as, in the ground, the holes for embedding the hinges of the two wooden leaves.

The six casemates. They are built in the rampart. This is where soldiers stood in time of war and food was stored in time of siege. The vaulted architecture is splendid and one really wonders how such blocks could have been installed there by men, when one knows that today, with cranes, staff and a puzzle master, only three to four stones of this size are installed in one day. These casemates have polished sides because of the herds that have lived and rubbed against them for centuries.

The acropolis, a monumental entrance to the palace that consisted of two porticoes and a door. We are then in the outer courtyard of the palace. At the end of this courtyard, the palace's sacrifices tank. We advance into the palace through the little propylées.

The little propylated ones. We can guess them thanks to the traces of columns visible on the ground. We can see that the latter were fixed to the ground according to the hinge principle since, around their supports, we can distinguish tiny tiny holes in the ground. This is where the wooden columns were embedded.

The megaron of men. Consisting of an entrance, a vestibule and a fireplace, the megaron was the place where the king and his male friends stayed. We can still see the circle where the fire was burning and the traces of the throne's location. To the left of the megaron is the bathroom, with traces of gutters used to drain the water. The slab is made of limestone.

The women's megaron. This is where the women of the palace lived, in the central room of a building built on the same level as that of the men. There are also traces of the location of a throne. They also had a small outside courtyard. It is also possible to distinguish, without going there, two wonders of this site in the western rampart, therefore on the side of the road.

The secret staircase. In the wall, which was more than 12 m high, there is a masterpiece of ancient defensive strategy, a secret staircase that allowed the defenders to walk through the wall and above all to return to the palace. The invaders who discovered it did not know until they rushed into it that at the end of the 65 steps, there was a tower that left a space between the entrance door of the acropolis and the end of the staircase. And the entrance was only possible if wooden boards were placed between the two, a kind of drawbridge that functioned as a trap because this wooden platform was systematically removed when the attackers were on it, then dragging them into a 20 m fall. The great thing is that the tower, staircase and mechanism were and are still invisible from the outside.

The underground galleries. At the bottom of the lower plateau, on the left, there is also a dark triangle. It is the door that led to the underground galleries, which were used by the occupants of the acropolis to store the water that gushed out of two secret springs. It is thanks to these sources that they could support such long seats.