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Lion Gate
The monumental entrance to the citadel, c. 1250 BC. Two lionesses flank a central column - the oldest surviving monumental sculpture in Europe.
History
The city that gave its name to a civilisation
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Mycenaean civilisation
Mycenae was the most powerful centre of mainland Greece during the Late Bronze Age (c. 1600–1100 BC). The civilisation that took its name from this hill spread its influence across the Peloponnese, Crete, Cyprus, the coast of Asia Minor and southern Italy, laying the foundations of the Greek language, religion and art.
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The myth of Agamemnon
In Homeric tradition, Mycenae is the city of Agamemnon, commander of the Achaean host in the Trojan War. Herodotus and Pausanias write of the 'gold-rich' city. In 1876 Heinrich Schliemann unearthed the golden funerary mask of Grave Circle A and was convinced he had 'looked upon the face of Agamemnon'.
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Why it stands apart
Nothing on the Greek mainland compares in scale or antiquity. The Cyclopean walls - up to eight metres thick - are built from boulders so vast that the ancients believed only the Cyclopes could have raised them. The Lion Gate is the oldest monumental sculpture in Europe, and the tholos of Atreus held the record for the largest dome in the world for over 1,400 years, until the Pantheon was built in Rome.
