The Dendra panoply is a near-complete suit of Mycenaean bronze plate armour, one of the most important finds of Bronze Age Europe. Excavators unearthed it at Dendra in the Argolid, close to Mycenae, inside a chamber tomb near the ancient site of Midea. The armour dates to around the fifteenth century before the common era, … Read more
Mykines is the small modern village that sits at the foot of the archaeological site of Mycenae, in the Argolid region of the Peloponnese. It carries the name of the ancient city on the hill above and serves as the everyday base for reaching the citadel, the museum and the tholos tombs. A single main … Read more
The Tomb of Clytemnestra is a large Bronze Age tholos, or beehive tomb, standing at Mycenae near the Lion Gate and the grave circles below the citadel walls. It ranks second in size and grandeur only to the Treasury of Atreus. The chamber belongs to a ring of monumental tombs built for the rulers of … Read more
Mycenae began as a small hilltop settlement in the Argolid and grew into the leading centre of Bronze Age Greece, lending its name to a whole civilization. Its rulers gathered wealth, raised Cyclopean walls, and buried their dead in gold-filled graves and great domed tombs. From this fortified citadel they reached out across the Argolid … Read more
Tiryns is a fortified Bronze Age citadel on the Argolid plain of the Peloponnese, a short drive from Mycenae and close to the town of Nafplio. It ranked among the great centres of the Mycenaean world, its low hill crowned by walls of astonishing scale. Massive stone ramparts wrap the summit, pierced by long corbelled … Read more
Grave Circle B is the older of the two royal grave circles at Mycenae, lying just outside the walls of the citadel a short distance from the Lion Gate. It holds shaft graves and simpler cist graves where early rulers were buried with pottery, weapons, jewellery and gold objects, though with less gold than the … Read more
Grave Circle A is a royal cemetery of deep shaft graves lying inside the walls of the citadel of Mycenae, just beyond the great gateway. A double ring of upright stone slabs marks the circle, which held the bodies of men, women and children of the early ruling house. The graves belong to the dawn … Read more
The palace of Mycenae crowned the highest point of the citadel, rising above the Lion Gate and the grave circles that guard the slope below. Here the rulers of Mycenae held their seat through the Late Bronze Age, governing the surrounding kingdom from a hall built for command and ceremony. Courtyards, corridors and storerooms spread … Read more
The Mycenae Archaeological Museum stands on the slope of the citadel, a short walk from the Lion Gate, gathering the finds pulled from the site and its cemeteries under one roof. Pottery, painted plaster, figurines, jewellery, bronze weapons and clay tablets fill its cases, arranged to explain how a Bronze Age capital lived, worshipped and … Read more
Mycenae is the great fortified citadel of the Argolid, set on a low hill in the Peloponnese near the modern village of Mykines in southern Greece. The site sits about a two-hour drive from Athens and around half an hour from Nafplio, which makes it an easy heritage stop on any tour of the region. … Read more