VEDA WELLNESS

MYCENAE

Argolida, Greece

Offered exclusively at our Greece Retreat

Mycenae is located on top of a small hill, at the foot of mount Evia, among two of the mountain tops and near the road that used to lead from the Argolic Gulf to the North (Corinth, Athens, etc). The hill was populated in the Neolithic era and knew great prosperity in the Late Bonze Age (1350-1200 B.C.); a great civilization began there and spread all over Greece. Gigantic Cyclopean Walls surround the citadel, except for its southern part, where a steep gully provides natural defense. The walls were constructed in three phases (ca. 1350 B.C., 1250 B.C. and 1225 B.C.).

On top of the acropolis the royal palace was built with the Throne Room to its southwest; other significant edifices there, are the Lion Gate, the Religious Centre with its important murals, the monumental staircases and the propylaea, as well as the “Grave Circle A” with the royal cist graves, where the antiquities displayed at the Archaeological Museum of Athens were found. On the southeast side of the hill, around 1225 B.C., apart from shops, a tunnel with cyclopean walls that led to a subterranean fountain was also built. The city walls were discovered together with houses, the Grave Circle B, and large domed tombs.

Mycenae was inhabited until 468 B.C., when it was conquered by the Argeians and its inhabitants were expelled. The citadel was populated again in the 3rd century A.D. for a little while, but the area had been abandoned for a long time; when Pausanias visited it in the 2nd century A.D. it was deserted. The findings from the excavations in Mycenae are being displayed in the National Archaeological Museum and the Archaeological Museum of Nafplio.