After visiting the Corinth Canal we drove to Mycenae.
First we drove to Tomb of Agamemnon. Bought combo tickets for the tomb and the Mycenae citadel. Everyone besides me and Marten paid, Riin's trick did not work this time :D I did not pay as the students in Greece (Greek and other international students) do not pay for museums and other sights which is very acceptable for me :)
The tomb of Agamemnon or Treasury of Atreus is a large beehive tomb (or a stone igloo if you want to call it like that) which was excavated vertically into a side of the hill and then placing the stones from down to up positioning each tier slightly inward until there was a small opening at the top. When all the stones and 33 concentric circles were in place, the masons carved the stone wall smooth. The triangle above the doorway is meant for relieving the weight from the lintel to the sides of the structure, preventing it to break under pressure. The stone lintel weights 120 tons and is one of the largest in the world, if not the largest. (Since starting to write this particular post, I was confused on how they lifted the lintel up to the height of 5,5 m. When I started to be done with the post after researching and spending a lot of time on it, I started to understand how. My guess is using round sticks under the lintel so that it rolls easier when pushed and pulled, on land and uphill. Or some other way which I did not think of). It is an masterpiece built around 1250 BC. The door opening is 5,5 m high, the interior height is 13,5 m and diameter 14,5 m, it was the tallest and widest dome in the world for over thousand years. The corridor leading to the entrance is 35 m long and 6 m wide. Its stones were waterproofed with a layer of clay.
Although as the name suggest, it has probably nothing to do with either Agamemnon or Atreus, the latter being the father of Agamemnon and both being kings of Mycenae. The archaeologists, Heinrich Schliemann, who cultivated the graves of Mycenae and the city itself, believed it was Agamemnon's tomb and thus was named by him and has been in use ever since. The tomb was never buried by earth throughout the centuries which meant it was visible to the grave robbers. Due to that, it is unknown who was buried there and what treasuries were buried with them. Now, just a massive tomb is left.
Mycenae is an archaeological site which was one of the major centers of Greek civilization in the 2nd millennium BC, in Greek history from 1600-1100 BC is called a Mycenaean period. At its peak in 1350 BC, the lower town and citadel had 30 000 people in 32 hectares. The citadel was built on a rocky hill (40-50 m high) which was easy to defend and was also located between two larger hills. Now the Mycenaen city is under the protection of UNESCO.
The Lion Gate, which was erected around 1250 BC, was the main entrance to Mycenae in the Bronze ages . The name obviously came from the the lions who are posing above the entrance. The gate is the only surviving monumental piece of Mycenaean sculpture and the only monument of the Bronze age Greece to bear an iconographic motif that survived. It also is also the largest sculpture in the prehistoric Aegean. The gate is 3,10 m wide and 2,95 m high at the lintel.
From the lion gates Circle A is on the right side and citadel up from the hill.
The Circle A graves date back to around 1580-1500 BC. Outside of the citadel walls is another older grave called circle B which dates back to 1650-1550 BC. Both of the graves are about 27 m in diameter and are surrounded by a parapet wall.
The Circle A contains of six shaft graves, smallest being 3 x 3,5 m and the largest 4,5 x 6,4 m, depth ranging from 1-4 m. Inside of the six graves were 19 bodies found - 8 men, 9 women and 2 children. The graves contained 2-5 bodies each besides Grave II which was a single burial.
During the excavations they found a lot of rich grave goods which now are displayed at the National Archaeological Museum of Athens and at the Mycenae Museum. They found more valuables from circle A than B. Objects buried with the people were designed to signify the social ranking of the deceased. The bodies gender was distinguished based on the grave goods placed next to them. Next to men were found swords and daggers, next to women jewelry, next to both men and women gold and silver cups. Also gold rings, buttons, bracelets and golden masks, like the mask of Agamemnon (found in Grave V) were found in the graves. The mask now is visible to the tourists in National Archaeological museum of Athens. This is not totally sure if it is Agamemnon's death mask as this mask dates back to 1600 BC and the Trojan War happened 400 years later in which he supposedly participated.
During our walk in the city (which was a bit exhausting as it is hilly and it was warm), we found a dog chilling at the ruins and who we petted and gave water to. Such a cute and sweet puppy.
There was a sign "No entry" to the basement thingy and we saw many people going and coming from there so naturally we went too. Me and Riin were the only brave ones but the dog went first.
The cave basement thingy was underground cistern to collect water to the city as it was built between hills. Another engineering masterpiece from that age, an underground tunnel which has not collapsed for around 3000 years. I still can't believe how they mastered those structures and where they got the wisdom for it. Blows my mind.
The Lion Tholos Tomb is located outside of the citadel walls and is dated to 1350 BC. This tomb had a tholos (vaulted roof) which collapsed and a dromos (walkway to a building) which has some remains. The tomb had 3 grave pits which were found empty. The grave is 14 m across making it one of the biggest of the 9 found tombs in Mycenae. This tomb and the tomb of Agamemnon are argued to be royal as they are the closest to the citadel and also the biggest. Other found tombs are more likely to be branches of the royal family.
Mycenae and its civilization started to decline around 1200 BC. The people living there left the citadel after series of fires around 100 years later. It is not sure what happened in Mycenae, it might have been raiders, natural disasters, famine or drought. The citadel was abandoned but the outer city still had some people until 5-4 century BC.
Our next stop was Olympia where we did not go in as it was closed. We went to the fence to check whats there to see but we did not see much because it was already dark. So we just headed home to Athens.
