24 March
2025 – Mycenae
Miles
driven today = 41
Total Miles
to date = 2,257
Once we had
paid up and said our goodbyes at Camping Nicolas II this morning we backtracked
all the way back to Nafplion. We needed
to stock up on a bit of shopping but we also needed to find a Vodafone shop as
our one month unlimited data deal expired today. We tried to renew it online yesterday but the
website was all in Greek and we got horribly confused so we enlisted the help
of an expert and we are now good for onboard wi-fi until we leave Greece.
Nafplion
was teeming with people. With it being
Greek Independence Day tomorrow everybody was out shopping for supplies for the
celebrations and stages were being set up in town for various events, so we got
out as quickly as we could and headed a few kilometres north to the ancient
ruins of Mycenae.
Mycenae was
the centre of the Mycenaean civilization who were a major power in Greece and
the Eastern Mediterranean during the latter part of the Bronze Age, between
1750 and 1050 BC.
The City
Walls are described as being Cyclopean, which are built using huge, roughly
shaped, blocks of rock weighing several tons apiece and which were all somehow
hoisted into position using 3,500 year old technology.
Mind boggling really.
We entered
the city via the Lion Gate, which is described on the information boards as
being “the oldest monumental relief in Europe”, dating back to 1240 BC.
Unfortunately the lions were decapitated many
centuries ago but it’s still an impressive monument.
Just inside
the gate is a building called “The Granary”, so called due to the carbonized cereal
grains found in its basement.
A
significant amount of pottery was also found here during excavations.
This is a “Circle
Grave”, which was used exclusively for royal burials during the 16
th
Century BC.
It was originally positioned
outside the City wall but when the wall was extended in the 13
th
Century BC it was brought inside.
The “Great
Ramp” was built when the citadel was remodelled in the 13
th Century
BC.
Buildings
of the North Quarter with phenomenal views beyond.
The Palace
stood at the summit of the hill.
There
is evidence that there may have been structures here as early as 3,000 BC. Unfortunately
most of the Palace had collapsed and is now significantly a reconstruction
based on how archeologists assume it would have been laid out.
Luckily for us we’ve already seen a better preserved example
of a similar building at Nestor’s Palace.
The Artisan’s
Quarter formed part of the Palace complex and has been identified as somewhere artists
may have worked based on finds of raw materials and unfinished pieces.
The “House
Of Columns” is thought to have been one of the most important buildings on the
East side of the citadel.
It gets its
name from a colonnade which existed in its central courtyard.
Several
buildings show evidence of staircases and therefore must have been at least 2
stories high.
Most were built in the 13
th
Century BC and appear to have been destroyed by fire within 100 years of their
construction.
The last
extension to the city was to the North West in the late 13
th Century
BC.
This
included an underground cistern which stored water supplied via an aqueduct
from a spring outside of the city walls.
I clambered
down the steps to the point where a locked gate prevents you from falling into
the cistern.
This is the view looking
back up.
The North “Postern”
Gate was closed, like the Lion Gate, with a double wooden door and bolted with
a sliding bar.
A little
way outside the Lion Gate is this Tholos or Beehive Tomb, much like the one we
saw close to Nestor’s Palace.
This one
dates to the early 14
th Century BC.
The door lintels are just immense.
We had a
look in the museum which is full of archeological finds from the site.
I had to keep pinching myself that most of
these are more than 3,000 years old.
These Figurines
were retrieved from one of the Temples.
Spindle
whorls used in weaving.
This is a
small section of a fresco which is “the largest piece of Mycenaean wall art remaining
in situ”.
Various
representations of the female form.
A huge stash
of grave goods recovered from one of the tombs.
Possessions
of a rich Mycenaean lady including bronze mirrors, beads and pendants and a mortar
for preparing her cosmetics.
It’s
probably worth pointing out at this stage that Lisa doesn’t only come along on
these trips to provide a scale for my photography subjects.
Finally we
walked a little way down the road to the Tomb of Agamemnon, or the “Treasury of
Atreus” as it is otherwise known.
It’s
another Tholos but this time on a gigantic scale.
We were
really lucky.
We arrived just as one
coach party was leaving and another turned up as we left, so apart from 2 other
people we had the place entirely to ourselves.
Inside the
acoustics were incredible.
A single
handclap reverberated for ages and there were also a few bumble bees in there
which sounded like a huge swarm.
Highly
appropriate in a “beehive” tomb.
Back in the
van we dropped back down the hill to the modern day town of Mykines.
We are in Camping Atreus, one of two
campsites in the area.
It appears to be
in the process of awakening from its winter slumbers but it’s only €20 a night
so it’ll suit us just fine for our final night on the Peloponnese.
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