Mycenae is the home of Homer and the epic poems the Iliad and the Odyssey, and has been continously inhabited from around 4000 BC until 486 BC, when an army from nearby Argos sacked the city.
Mycenae was constructed on a hilltop on the slopes of Euboea Mountain in the Peloponnese 90 kilometers (56 miles) from Athens.
In 1250 BC the construction of the outer walls began. The walls stretched the entire perimeter of the citadel except on the Southeastern edge, where a ravine forms a natural barrier. The rocks used to build the walls are so large that the legend arose that the walls had been built with the help of cyclops, large one-eyed mythical creatures, giving the walls the popular name "Cyclopean walls".
The triangular rock with the two lions above the main gate represents the ruling family of Mycenae when the outer walls were first constructed in 1250 BC, and is the oldest known piece of Greek art still in existence.
The Western part of Mycenae, the visitor parking area in the background across the road and the town of Koutsopodio far back.
The East side of Mycenae, where you find the walled tunnel going to an underground cistern and further up to a mountain well.
This is a look South over the plain, another Mycenaen town, Tiryns, 15 kilometers (9 miles) away, and the Argolic gulf of the Ionean sea.
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