They clogged my veins with sand
And the dry wind smoked my lips -
The cubes placed by the Cyclops,
The well-trodden sleepy Mycenae.

Everyone remembers the rocks - how alternately
Signalmen have spent the night sleeping for years
At the piled fires, how sensitively they waited
The cherished message: Agamemnon is near!

Once here, there is no need to regret,
That time has become silent on your wrist,
That danger sleeps in the stones like a scorpion,
The abandoned herd bleats sadly,

The sound of a sheep's rattle is sad.
From the liquid shadow of oleander leaves
Look, doomed Cassandra,
On pale Slavic freckles.

Oh prophetic, my simple epic,
He will distort your features with a yawn,
But, you know, with great pleasure
I would swap my jeans for peplos.

Dark centuries of victory and treason
We woke up in a confident hexameter,
I didn’t come, but you returned to me,
Confused old Mycenae.
Helga Haren

In the 3rd millennium BC, there were three major centers of human civilization: Mesopotamia, Egypt and the Hittite Empire. The ancestor of all empires was Mesopotamia, the origin of which is shrouded in historical fog.
One day the huge Hittite Empire collapsed. Its fragments flew in all directions, giving birth civil war, devastation, famine and fratricidal clashes. In those days there were no strictly guarded borders - neither our own nor neighboring countries, so different groups - in fact, even completely independent peoples scattered in different directions.
The Hittite Empire was located in Albania, Croatia, Serbia, and Macedonia. Those peoples who left war and devastation to the west eventually ended up on the Apennine Peninsula, becoming Etruscans, Sabines, and Latins. The other, largest group of peoples moved south, towards the future Hellas. These were the Pelasgians, Achaeans, Dorians, Ionians, Leleges, and Carians.
Arriving on the territory of the future mainland Greece, they inhabited it, displacing or partially assimilating the mysterious Minoan civilization that existed there. And on the islands the Cycladic culture replaced the Cretan and Proto-Aegean culture. As a result of this fusion, the so-called Aegean or Mycenaean civilization arose. The culture flourished from 1500 to 1050 BC. Then it slowly turns into classical Hellas.
A dramatic leap in Greek culture occurred around 1700 BC. At this time, the Cretan-Minoan culture began to fade away, but its influence remained.
Heinrich Schliemann, a German amateur archaeologist, once a wealthy merchant who made his fortune working in St. Petersburg, then supplemented it with financial transactions in America, gave Greece another millennium of history. He achieved this, relying on the mythological legends of Homer.
The Tomb of Atreus, which he explored in 1879, is the largest domed tomb in Mycenaean culture.

It is impossible to truly know the Mycenaean culture down to the smallest detail. Some architectural moves still remain a mystery. It remains to rely on archaeological information and myths ancient Greece and on the information of those peoples who came into contact with them.
From 1700 to 1500 BC Mycenaean culture used deep shaft tombs lined with stone slabs, earth, brushwood or grass at the bottom. Royal tomb 1450 BC it looked like this: a long passage began on the hillside, the sides were lined with stones and ended in front of the door that closed the entrance to the tomb. The wooden doors were covered with bronze. The facade was decorated with 2 columns 10.5 m high. In the triangular opening above the entrance there was once a sculpture just like on the Lion Gate, which I will talk about later.

Through the passage one could get directly under the arch of the dome.

The diameter of the room is 14 m 25 cm, height 12.5 m. Starting from the 3rd row, the masonry forms a vault.

The weight of the beam above the entrance is 120 tons.

A small entrance leads to the room where the deceased and the offerings that accompanied him to the afterlife were located.

The stones are not very tightly fitted to each other, so between the vertical seams there are voids that bees have chosen; they fly freely back and forth through the entrance to the tomb in the summer.

This is perhaps one of the attractions that you need to remember when traveling to Greece - the huge vault of the tomb, reminiscent of a medieval cathedral, the sunlight at the entrance, turning into twilight, and the buzzing of bees, vaguely reminiscent of the sound of an organ.

Apart from the key stone that closes the tomb from above, this is an original, ingenious structure.

The length of the inclined corridor-dromos, which leads to the tomb, is 36 m, width 6 m.

The quarry from which the blocks were taken was located 15 km from Mycenae.
Throughout the Argolid you can see the remains of bridges from the Mycenaean era. There was an extensive network of roads between the cities. The city was ruled by a king who had full power during the war. IN Peaceful time decisions were mainly made by the local aristocratic assembly.
The Acropolis is an elevated fortified area on a hill, an invention of the ancient Mycenaeans. There was always a spring inside the acropolis. In the center of the city there has always been a Palace - the center of cultural and political life. Traces of Mycenaean culture extend to the Baltic.
From 3000 BC there were already settlements here. Mycenae also existed in the classical era, having taken part in the events of the Greco-Persian wars, but in 468 BC. the city was ravaged by the Argolians. Since then, Mycenae has become one of the many appendages of the powerful Argos. Gradually, life in this area came to a standstill.
The height of the mountain on which the city of Mycenae was located is 254 m above sea level.

The heyday of Mycenae was observed in the 18-12th century BC. In the 2nd century BC. all residents left the city.
Fortifications around the center of Mycenae were erected around 1350 BC. The second line of fortifications appeared in 1250 BC. At the same time, the Lion Gate was built.

The second line of Mycenaean fortification arises in connection with the invasion of the Dorians and other northwestern Greek tribes. The Lion Gate marks the main entrance to the city.

The masonry is made of conglomerate similar to Meteor rocks.

The two lionesses that support the column with the altar are made of a different stone.

The heads of the lionesses made of gold were turned towards the man who was entering the city, but they, naturally, have not survived to this day. Each of the three beams that precede the entrance weighs more than 20 tons.
Life in Mycenae was in full swing until the end of the 11th century BC. It's hard to imagine that the stones at the base of this wall have been lying here for 3,250 years!
To the left of the entrance there was a small shrine in the wall.

In this area, 19 mine burials were excavated, 6 of them the richest, where most of Schliemann’s gold was discovered.

He believed that he had discovered the tomb of Agamemnon and his father, King Atreus - a golden mask, one of the ones he found in the burials, was directly called the “mask of Agamemnon.” Later, researchers found that the mask was made long before the reign of Agamemnon, in the 16th century BC. This exhibit is a masterpiece of Mycenaean art, and at the same time the most famous mistake in the history of archaeology.

The conclusion that the death mask of King Agamemnon was found was made by Heinrich Schliemann based on the description of the Trojan War in Homer’s epic “Iliad” and on the works of Pausanias, an ancient Greek geographer who lived in the 2nd century BC. Pausanias in his writings described that Agamemnon was buried inside the city, and his wife Clytemnestra and her lover Aegisthus were buried outside the city wall, as unworthy people. When starting excavations in Mycenae, Heinrich Schliemann was guided precisely by the works of ancient Greek writers. The archaeologist was sure that inside the city walls he would definitely find the remains of the Mycenaean heroes about whom Homer and Pausanias wrote.
In the ancient Greek epic written by Homer, the famous Iliad, Agamemnon is one of the main characters, he was distinguished by his courage and became famous for many exploits. The Trojan War began with the kidnapping of Paris beautiful Elena, wife of King Menelaus, brother of Agamemnon. Menelaus, together with Agamemnon, convinced the Greek rulers to participate in a military campaign against the Trojans. Agamemnon led the Greek army. The Greek army defeated the Trojan army, but fate turned away from Agamemnon. His wife Clytemnestra, having cheated on him with his cousin Aegisthus, plotted to kill Agamemnon. Clytemnestra and Aegisthus carried out their plan and killed Agamemnon along with his mistress Cassandra. The sad fate of the Mycenaean king served as the plot for many ancient Greek tragedies.
In these shaft tombs were discovered: the men wore golden masks, breastplates and greaves, swords and daggers; for women - golden tiaras; both have vessels made of gold, silver and electrum, sacred bowls for ritual drinking in the form of animal heads (the so-called rhytons). The dead were covered with cloaks decorated with gilded plaques depicting symbols of immortality - bees, spirals, stars, etc. Total weight gold treasures amounted to 15 kilograms.
Men's faces are usually not covered with masks. The fact that they were men and warriors is indicated by the presence of weapons in their graves, and the amount of gold and the care of the work indicate honor, wealth and status.
All these treasures Mycenaean kings were concentrated in the shaft tombs of circle A and B, while the magnificent Mycenaean tholos - grandiose round tombs - turned out to be completely empty, they were looted long before exploration.
Part of the Mycenaean gold is in the Athens Archaeological Museum, and most of it, found in both Troy and Mycenae, is in the Pushkin Museum in Moscow, ending up in the USSR after World War II as a trophy taken in Berlin.
The Alpha burial circle was formed in 1600 - 1700 BC. In the 13th century, the burials were surrounded by a stone fence, hollow from the inside. Nobody knows why this was done. It is believed that these burials were sacred burials of people who played some role in the local religious cult or the founders of Mycenae.
Moreover, another level of the wall was erected around 1250 BC.

Beyond Circle A was a religious center. Next are the ruins of a granary and residential areas.

During its heyday, about 2,000 people lived here. At that time it was a populous city; it was not for nothing that Homer called it “Gold-abundant Mycenae” in his works.
The houses of the inhabitants of Mycenae are characterized by the fact that the only entrance led through the men's half of the house into the women's.
The main center of the political and spiritual life of Mycenae was the Palace, which was located on the top of a hill. At the entrance there were propylaea that supported two columns. The palace premises were painted with colored plaster, which was found in abundance during excavations. Around 13th century BC there was a strong fire in the palace. I don't think the landscape has changed much since then.

In the Mycenae Museum you can see what was partially discovered during excavations.

Near the village of Mykines on the peninsula. In the past it was the largest center of the Mycenaean civilization, but currently it is the main attraction of the period of antiquity. Dating back to the second millennium BC. e. It was first mentioned in written sources by Homer.

According to myths, Mycenae was founded by Perseus, the slayer of Medusa the Gorgon. The descendants of Danaus and the Amyphaonids who migrated from Elis lived here. In 468 BC. the city was destroyed by the Argives. The ruins were included in the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1999.

Attractions

The remains of the ancient city are an open-air museum, which is surrounded by a 900-meter wall made of huge stones.

The main attractions of Mycenae:

• The Lion Gate, which guarded the entrance to the citadel,
• domed tombs (tholos),
• megarons of the king and queen,
• royal cemetery,
• Agamemnon's palace
• tomb of Agamemnon.

There is a fee to visit the archaeological park. A single ticket costs 8 euros (children under 18 years old are free) and is valid when visiting the Mycenaean Acropolis, the Treasury of Atreus and the Archaeological Museum.

7 km south of Mycenae is Argive Ereion (Ireon of Argives), which is a sanctuary of Hera. Open to the public every day, in season, from 8:30 to 15:00. The entrance is free.

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How to get to Mycenae

The ancient ruins are located approximately 90 km from the city and near the city of Argos. You can get to Mycenae from Athens by bus, which departs from the KTEL Athenon intercity bus station. The drive takes 2 hours, the fare costs 12 euros.

You can also take a taxi from anywhere in the Peloponnese. Excursions to the city are also organized.

Hotels

Next to the archaeological park is the village of Mykines (2 km away), where there are several hotels where you can stay overnight and go explore the ancient city in the morning.

There is a larger choice of housing in the city of Argos, which is the largest settlement closest to Mycenae. You can book hotels at

Mycenae- the oldest city in mainland Greece. Only Knossos, the center of the Minoan civilization, on Crete is ancient. Mycenae dates back to the second millennium BC. Currently the city is in ruins. In turn, the ruins have been turned into a museum. On the 29th day of our stay in Greece, it became completely boring to see the ruins; we spent about two to three hours in Mycenae. The complex is quite small and quite monotonous.

Grave Circle A. Mycenaean Acropolis. On the right is the entrance, below is a parking lot for tourist buses.

Mycenae is one of the most easily accessible attractions in the Peloponnese. 120 km from Athens, and 110 of them are on the highway. By time approximately 1 hour 10 minutes. We arrived from the other side; these days our base was in Epidaurus.

The Mycenaean fortress occupied a very advantageous strategic position, it towered over the Argos plain and controlled all the mountain passes to the north, all the way to Corinth. The main entrance to the city was decorated with the Lion Gate, built around 1260 BC. e. Above them were carved two large stone lions. The entire structure was crowned with a roof, the length of which was 8 m, height - 90 cm, and width - 2.4 m.

From the gate there was a road to the royal palace. Its walls were decorated with frescoes, similar to Cretan paintings. Thus, the inhabitants of Mycenae had an idea of ​​Minoan culture. The houses of lesser-ranking townspeople were crowded around. One of them, the so-called House with Columns, was three-story.

I am not an expert in history or archaeology. But I would like to know who lived here, when, and what the building was used for. Often such information simply does not exist. On information stands there are approximate dates and descriptions appearance...although not even the appearance, but the remnants of the appearance.

The Mycenaean (Achaean) civilization (1600-1100 BC) is one of the oldest and most interesting civilizations that ever existed on the territory of modern Greece. This civilization had an undeniable influence on the subsequent development of ancient Greek culture and occupies a special place in literature and mythology, including in the works of Homer.

One of the largest and most important centers of the Mycenaean civilization, of course, was the ancient city of Mycenae, from which, in fact, the culture subsequently received its name. The royal residence was also located here, as well as the tombs of the Mycenaean kings and their entourage. IN ancient greek mythology Mycenae is well known as the kingdom of the famous Agamemnon, who led the legendary Trojan War.

The ruins of the once majestic Mycenae lie about 90 km southwest of Athens in the north-eastern part of the Peloponnese near the small village of the same name and today are an important archaeological and historical site.

History of archaeological excavations

The first excavations of ancient Mycenae were carried out back in 1841 by the Greek archaeologist Kyrriakis Pittakis. It was then that the famous Lion Gate was discovered - a monumental entrance to the acropolis, built from four huge monolithic limestone blocks and got its name because of the huge bas-relief depicting two lions above the entrance. The Lion Gate, as well as fragments of the impressive fortress walls (their width in some places reached 17 m), built in the so-called “Cyclopean” masonry, are well preserved and even today, more than three thousand years later, they amaze with their monumentality.

The archaeological work that began in the 1870s under the auspices of the Archaeological Society of Athens and the leadership of Heinrich Schliemann created a real sensation. During the excavations (both on the territory of the fortress and outside it), a number of burials were revealed in shaft and domed tombs with an incredible number of various funeral gifts, among which the huge number of various items made of gold was especially impressive. However, the architecture of the tombs was also of great interest, perfectly illustrating the skill of ancient architects. The best preserved to this day, perhaps, are the tombs of Clytemnestra and Atreus. The tomb of the latter dates back to the 14th century BC. and is a two-chamber tomb with a dromos corridor (length - 36 m, width - 6 m), leading to a domed room (where the king’s body rested) with a small side chapel, in which a number of burials were also identified. A huge 9-meter stone slab weighing approximately 120 tons was installed above the entrance to the tomb. How the ancient craftsmen managed to install it still remains a mystery. The Tomb of Atreus, or the Treasury of Atreus, is the most grandiose domed structure of that time and one of the most important architectural monuments of the Mycenaean civilization.

In subsequent decades, archaeologists returned more than once to the excavations of the legendary Mycenae and discovered many more different structures, including the remains of a palace complex located on the top of a hill. Recently, the so-called “ lower city" A detailed study of the results of archaeological excavations has made it possible to significantly lift the veil of secrecy over the mysterious Mycenaean civilization.

The famous “Mycenaean gold” (including the so-called golden “mask of Agamemnon”, 16th century BC), as well as many other unique ancient artifacts found during the excavations of Mycenae, are today kept in the National Archaeological Museum of Athens.

On a note

• Location: Mycenae
• Opening hours: daily, June - November from 08.00 to 19.00, November - March from 08.30 to 15.00.
• Tickets: adult - 3 euros, under 21 years old - free.

The descendants of the mythical Perseus ruled Mycenae for many generations until they were replaced by the powerful Atreus dynasty, with which many heroic and tragic events are associated. The son of Atreus, the legendary Agamemnon, who led the campaign against Troy, on the advice of the oracle, sacrificed his own to the gods my own daughter Iphigenia. After his triumphant return from the Trojan War, Agamemnon was killed in the bath by his wife Clytemnestra, who had not forgiven her husband for the death of her daughter. Clytemnestra, in turn, is killed by her son Orestes, distraught with rage, incited by his sister Electra. What can I say? Cruel times, cruel morals. But after thousands of years, the name Clytemenestra became a common noun in Greece for husband-killing wives.

These legends and assumptions found historical confirmation when the German amateur archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann, while searching for Troy, accidentally stumbled upon one of the mine burial grounds. Several more burials of the same type were discovered nearby, and then it became clear why Homer called Mycenae rich in gold. During the excavations, an incredible amount of gold and amazingly beautiful things were found (about 30 kg!): jewelry, cups, buttons, military equipment and bronze weapons trimmed with gold. The amazed Schliemann wrote: “All the museums in the world do not possess even a fifth of these riches.” But the most significant find was a golden death mask, which, according to Schliemann, belonged to Agamemnon himself. But the age of the burial grounds did not confirm this version; the burials were made much earlier, before the reign of Agamemnon. Interesting fact Confirming the power and wealth of ancient Mycenae is the fact that no iron objects were found. The main materials from which the discovered objects are made are silver, bronze and gold. Artifacts found in mine burials are kept in the Archaeological Museum of Athens and the Archaeological Museum of Mycenae.

Ancient city occupied a strategically convenient position on the top of a hill, protected by the massive walls of the acropolis. The laying of defensive walls was carried out without the use of any binder mortar. The stones were fitted so tightly that the walls give the impression of being monolithic. The famous “Lion Gate” led to the acropolis - a cyclopean structure made of stones, decorated with a bas-relief with two lionesses - a symbol of the power of the royal dynasty. The gate is the most famous building of Mycenae, and the bas-relief is considered one of the most significant heraldic monuments in the world.

The citadel contained residential buildings of the nobility and household buildings, many of the buildings were two and three stories high. Not far from the entrance there are remains of burial circle A, where shaft tombs dating back to 1600 BC are located. Items found in them indicate that the burials of royal families were located here.

A large staircase leading to the royal palace began from the courtyard at the Lion Gate. The center of the palace was Megaron - a large room with a fireplace on the floor. The Royal Megaron was the central building, a kind of administrative center. Meetings were held here and trials were held. All that remains of the royal chambers is the foundation. Fragments of the foundation of the red bathroom in which Agamemnon was killed can also be discerned.

On a short distance From the walls of the acropolis, burial circle B was discovered, which included domed tombs (tholos) - another example of Mycenaean architecture. The most impressive and well-preserved of them is the so-called “Treasury of Atreus” or “Tomb of Agamemnon”. When the burial was found by Schliemann, it was plundered. Therefore, it was not possible to establish who owned the tomb, but the size and architectural features suggest that there was a royal tomb inside. Round underground structures replaced shaft burials. A sloping corridor lined with stones leads to the high narrow entrance. Inside, the tomb is an impressive dome, 13.5 m high and 14.5 m in diameter, lined with horizontal rows of stones. Each row protrudes slightly above the previous one. Before the construction of the Roman Pantheon, the tomb was the tallest structure of its type.