ANCIENT SITE OF MYCENAE

No one can resist Mycenae, a wonderful city classified by UNESCO. According to the legends, Perseus, son of Zeus and Danae, is the founder of the city of Mycenae. The last king of the Perseid dynasty was Eurystheus, the same one who imposed on Heracles his famous twelve labors. The atmosphere of Mycenae is however mainly impregnated with the name of Agamemnon, son of Atreus, who succeeded his father on the throne and led the Achaean expedition against Troy. On his return from Troy, Agamemnon was murdered in Mycenae by his wife Clytemnestra, assisted by her lover Aegisthus. Agamemnon's son, Orestes, took it upon himself to avenge his father by killing the criminal couple in his turn.

But the site of Mycenae also presents evidence of the formation, the apogee and the decline of the Mycenaean civilization. The apogee of the Mycenaean civilization, especially in Crete, from 1450 BC, led to the emergence of a unique civilization that flourished throughout the Mycenaean Empire. One also built at the time the imposing door of the Lions. Mycenae continued to be inhabited after the fall of the Mycenaean civilization which took place in XIIth century BC. The acropolis was destroyed by the Argians in 468 BC, but the wall was rebuilt two centuries later.

Visit the acropolis of Mycenae.

Entering the site and heading towards the Lions' Gate, you will first see the ramparts, built in three stages from the middle of the 14th century BC to 1200 BC. The legend tells that, for the construction of these walls which went up to 12 m height, Perseus had called upon the giants cyclopes, from where the term of cyclopeans allotted to these ramparts and the irregular and rough aspect of the blocks.

The door of the Lions

enthroned between the ramparts, guaranteeing the protection and the perfect control of the acropolis. This unique monument, made of four monolithic blocks of conglomerate, closed in the past by a double wooden door. One can see the recesses inside the posts. One can also see that the 20-ton lintel is thicker in the middle to support the weight of the relief plate. Behind the entrance, a small cavity on the left shows what were the guards' lodges.

One then descends to circle A,

the site of the royal tombs. In 1250 B.C., when the rampart was extended to the south and west, these royal tombs found themselves at the bottom of a cavity. In order to protect them, a circular wall was built above the old peribola and raised to the level of the entrance. In the western part of circle A, six royal tombs with wells numbered I to VI in Roman numerals were unearthed; 19 skeletons of men, women and children were exhumed. Schliemann, who discovered this circle in 1876, also uncovered a veritable gold treasure trove with the funerary furnishings intended to accompany the deceased into the afterlife: gold masks, gold diadems, pins, earrings and gold scales for weighing souls, amounting to more than 15 kg of gold jewelry! These jewels are on display at the National Archaeological Museum in Athens.

When one returns on its steps to go up towards the palace,

one borrows the Large Ramp which started from the door of the Lions and divided originally into two branches. One climbs today the staircase in front of the door of the Lions. The Mycenaean palace was a complex built on two levels: the higher one, on which rare constructions are preserved, and the lower one, in front of which we arrive. One then borrows the small stone corridor to discover a large court formerly coated with cement and stucco. The Mycenaean chief received there the foreigners of mark and it is there that was the room of audience, ceremonies and official banquets. Behind the entrance of the palace there was the hall, small portico of the size of a corridor and opened on the court. A vestibule of the same shape and size followed it. Its walls were decorated with frescoes, fragments of which are on display in the National Archaeological Museum. Finally, beyond the vestibule, the imposing domos, in which the throne of the chief must have been located, has not been preserved.

Going back,

one can see, starting from the vestibule, the remains of a large staircase

leading to the upper floors. Since the staircase is not in use, it is necessary to go around it to go up to the upper level and admire the end point of this staircase: the red bath, at the corner of a room with a red painted floor, equipped with two low benches along the walls.

Before descending to the cistern,

we walk along the ruins of four buildings, two of which are known as the artists' studios and the column house.

Continuing downhill, we come to the northeast extension

that was added to the fortification at the end of the 12th century BC. Its purpose was to provide the site with an underground cistern in the rock itself, 18 m deep. The visit of this cistern is fun and interesting. By the light of your flashlight, you will be able to see above the cistern the presence of a vertical well blocked by stones that served as a filter.

The external constructions.

It is then necessary to return towards the door of the Lions to admire the constructions external to the acropolis of Mycènes. It is about the rests of the houses and Mycenaean tombs, because the king and the members of the royal family lived on the acropolis, while the other Mycenaeans lived on the nearby hills. By leaving the gate of the Lions and by taking the way leaving on the left, one arrives at the tomb of Egisthe. A 22 m long corridor led to the large chamber of 13.50 m in diameter. It is not possible to enter this tomb, which was part of the group of tholos tombs or royal tombs and which was plundered during antiquity. Continuing the descent, one arrives, on the right, at the tomb of Clytemnestra, which it is possible to visit. It is probably the most recent tholos tomb since it was built around 1220 BC. The circular chamber of 13,50 m of diameter is impressive!

It contained a treasure which, a rare thing, had not been plundered during Antiquity. It is in the XIXth century, when it was brought to light by the inhabitants of the nearby village, that its contents disappeared! We still don't know what happened to this treasure. On the way out, you can see the remains of the stone steps of a theater that was built just above the embankment in the Hellenistic period. One can also, while heading towards the exit of the site, visit the tomb of the Lions.

To reach the treasure of Atreus or Agamemnon's tomb,

you have to leave the site and take your car. The treasure of Atreus is an imposing construction which dates from about 1250 BC. The corridor or dromos is 36 m long and 6 m wide. Inside the chamber there are traces of nails and bronze at different points of the wall: this proves that the interior was decorated with bronze rosettes. On the north side there is a rectangular side chamber cut into the rock. In its center, there was probably a pillar supporting the architecture. As for the rock, it was covered with fine stone slabs with sculpted decoration. Again, the contents of the tomb were savagely plundered during antiquity.

Chamber tombs and tholos tombs. It is from the 16th century that the so-called chamber and tholos tombs were built. In both cases, the main chamber is accessed by a narrow corridor, sloping in the case of chamber tombs and horizontal in the case of tholos tombs. The two tombs differ in the construction of the door, the stomion (passage from the door to the chamber) and the chamber: the chamber tombs are cut on the slopes of the heights and closed with dry stones. The tholos tombs constitute a luxurious evolution since the chamber is made of circular stone courses. The stones are mounted one on top of the other, protruding inwards from the stones of the bed on which they rest: the diameter narrows as it goes along, until a small final opening is closed by a single stone.