The Lion Gate
A colossal lintel crowned by two facing lions for 3,300 years.
Andreas Trepte โ CC BY-SA 2.5 ยท David Monniaux โ CC BY-SA 3.0 ยท Gsimonov โ Public domain ยท Gsimonov โ Public domain
The ticket is **about โฌ12** in season and covers **the site, the museum and the Treasury of Atreus** โ do not buy separate tickets, and confirm the coverage at the window. โ **The site is sloping and completely exposed, without a tree** โ the heat in July and August on a bare summit is severe; **start at opening** and carry water and a hat. โ **The ground is uneven stone and steeply pitched** โ **not wheelchair-accessible** and hard on knees. โ **The secret cistern**: a descending stair, **entirely dark, wet and slippery** โ do not go down without **a light** (a phone will do), not with small children, and anyone claustrophobic should skip it. โ **Coaches from Athens** arrive around 10:30. โ **Visit the museum** โ small but it explains the site, and it is air-conditioned. Allow **two hours** for site and museum, plus **half an hour** for the Treasury of Atreus.
๐ฌ Ask on WhatsAppOpen in Google Maps โ**The capital of the civilisation that preceded classical Greece by a thousand years** โ a UNESCO World Heritage Site, 18 km from Nafplio. In the **13th century BC** Mycenae was a centre of power that dominated southern Greece and gave its name to a whole era: the **Mycenaean** civilisation. Homer made it the kingdom of **Agamemnon**, who led the Greeks to Troy. You enter through the **Lion Gate** โ an enormous stone lintel surmounted by a carving of two facing lions, **the oldest monumental sculpture surviving in Europe**, still in its original place after 3,300 years. Behind it is **Grave Circle A**, where the gold **Mask of Agamemnon** was found (now in the Athens museum), and the path climbs to the **palace** on the summit and to the **secret cistern**, cut into the rock with a stair descending into total darkness. โ The walls themselves are what the Greeks called **"Cyclopean"**: blocks so large they assumed only giants could have lifted them.
A colossal lintel crowned by two facing lions for 3,300 years.
Where the gold Mask of Agamemnon and the royal grave treasures were found.
A stair down through rock into total darkness to a protected water source.
Mykines, 21200 Argolida, Greece
**We do not know โ the precise answer is that the city is real and the king unverified.** โ **What is established**: Mycenae **genuinely existed** and was a real centre of power in the 13th century BC, and its walls, palace and rich royal graves are in front of you. **Troy is also a real site** in Turkey, with destruction layers. โ **What is not established**: that a man called Agamemnon ruled from here and led an expedition against Troy. The **Iliad** was written down in the 8th century BC โ **five centuries after** the period it describes โ and it is poetry, not record. โ **As for the "Mask of Agamemnon"**: it was named by **Heinrich Schliemann**, who excavated here in 1876 and announced that he had "gazed on the face of Agamemnon". The mask is **genuine and extraordinary**, but it dates to about **1550 BC** โ three centuries **before** the supposed date of the Trojan War. The name is **Schliemann's label**, not an identification.
**Mycenae if you love history; Epidaurus if you love an experience.** โ **Mycenae** is the heavier and richer: the Lion Gate, the grave circle, the palace, the cistern, the Treasury of Atreus a minute away, and a museum that explains it all โ **a full three hours**, and with it the sense of standing at the beginning of Greek history. โ But it is **physically hard**: an exposed, shadeless slope. โ **Epidaurus** is one site with **one unforgettable moment**: you sit at the top of the theatre and hear an ordinary voice from the centre perfectly clearly โ and people remember that longer than they remember any stone. **It is also easier physically**, with pine shade and a small museum. โ **The rule**: with children or in severe heat โ Epidaurus. With an interest in history โ Mycenae. โ And anyone with **two days** should take both, because they resemble each other in nothing.
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