Greece 15: Mycenae

According to Homer, writing around 800 BCE, during the Trojan War the major Greek city was Mycenae, ruled by King Agamemnon.  The civilization Homer was attempting to describe, flourishing roughly 1400-1200 BCE, is today known as the Mycenaean.

 

Mycenae, the site, does not disappoint.

 

This is the famous Lions Gate, although scholars now think the missing heads - which stuck out of the plane - were griffins, not lions.

This is the so-called Treasury of Atreus, actually the largest tholos or beehive tomb in the city. Notice the size of the ashlars or giant bricks that make up the walls. Inside, I counted 33 levels of them.

The grave circles where Heinrich Schliemann found, among other thing, golden death masks which are now in the National Archaeological Museum in Athens.

Schliemann, who was an amazing bungler as an archaeologist, was convinced that one of these masks was "the face of Agamemnon."

When scientists concluded that the mask was too old to connect to the Trojan War era Schliemann responder: "All right, let's call him Schulze."

Why not?

A few more...

Next stop: Corinth