Mycenae

After a lovely lunch we then headed to Mycenae for some really ancient history, it would seem the site is from 1300 and 1200BC there were some really impressive bits ‘grave circle A’ photo2 great description eh? This was used in Neolithic times as well as during the 1200BC. A lot of the old town has been destroyed by earthquake or looted for building materials but there were two intact beehive tombs, well structurally intact the burial goods had all gone obviously but the two beehive tombs were awe inspiring. John was concerned with how they were built and concluded that a mound of ground was used and the block work built over this, they looked 10-12m tall, the soil would then have been removed and piled on top, they had what I felt were almost Egyptian style entrances and some of the blocks especially the lintels were huge. Just inside each of the 2 entry gates were small chambers where we assume the guards were located, one of the gates, the main one is known as the Lion gate. They had expanded the town walls during 1200 BC to add a water source . But the origin was still outside the walls but they had built an aqueduct of clay pipework partly above ground but mostly subterranean that then reached 18m under the town so they had unlimited water. check out the photos.Read more