Mycenae

The huge defensive wall ringing the citadel, built to keep attackers out.

• about 900m around by 1200 BC, 5.5–7.5m thick and around 12m high
• unmortared limestone blocks of about two tonnes each, a rubble core behind a facing of large blocks, moved on rollers and up earth ramps and built to follow the hill
• so massive that later Greeks could not believe humans had raised them: the traveller Pausanias records the tradition that the one-eyed Cyclopes built them, which is where “Cyclopean” comes from

The monumental main gateway, and a statement of the rulers' power to anyone approaching.

• built in the 13th century at the city's height, framed in shiny conglomerate to set it apart
• a roughly 3m square opening with a 20-tonne lintel; above it a corbelled “relieving triangle” diverts the weight of the wall off the lintel
• the triangle holds the earliest monumental sculpture on the Greek mainland: two facing lions (their heads, now lost, were carved separately and probably turned to meet the visitor) flanking a Minoan-style column that may stand for the palace or its protecting deity
• the approach itself was a killing zone: a bastion on the right of the path narrowed it and turned attackers' unshielded right side to the wall, so defenders above could strike them as they neared the gate
• the only other way in was the smaller northern, or Postern, gate

Small, concealed gaps in the wall that let defenders dash out to surprise besiegers, then slip back inside.

• “to sally” is to make a sudden rush out; the port gave a hidden exit to strike at enemy troops camped outside the walls
• there were two, one north and one south
• the southern one is visible from a distance and only about 2.5m wide, so its value as a surprise is debatable

The ruler's residence and the administrative heart of the city, set at the highest, most commanding point.

• the uneven ground was artificially levelled, with storage terraces down the sides
• at its core was the megaron, a great hall with a central hearth and a throne, its walls once bright with frescoes — in effect the ruler's throne room

A hidden water tank that kept the city supplied if it was besieged and cut off from its spring.

• a passage runs from the northern sally port, under the wall, down to a tank about 18m below ground
• fed by clay pipes from a spring outside the walls, so the Mycenaeans could still draw water under siege and hold out
• roofed by corbelling, laying ever-larger blocks until they meet at the top

Royal burial grounds, ringed by a low stone wall, where rulers and their families were buried with rich treasure.

• Grave Circle A sits inside the walls, re-walled and regraded when the Lion Gate went up so it stood grandly within the citadel; Schliemann dug it in 1876
• Grave Circle B is older and lies about 200m outside the walls
• full contents come under Topic 4 (Tombs, Graves and Burial)

Monumental “beehive” tombs — tall domed stone chambers reached by a long passage, built for the elite outside the walls.

• the finest is the Treasury of Atreus, also called the Tomb of Agamemnon, whose corbelled dome was the largest of its kind in the ancient world for around a thousand years
• the so-called Tombs of Clytemnestra and Aegisthus belong to the same family, built around the 14th century BC