Monday 21st April 2008

We arrived at the car park at Mycenae to find four coaches and quite a few cars but there was plenty of room for Henrietta. This was our fifth visit to Mycenae but it has never lost its charm and the first view of it, the ruins crowded on a low hill surrounded by mountains, is quite magical. The depth of history here is incredible, occupied from 3,000 BC and with evidence from that date through many centuries. In 1350 BC the Cyclopean Walls (so called because later peoples believed that only a giant like Cyclops could have built them) were raised but a palace existed well before then. The walls are constructed of huge stones averaging 6 tonnes and remain very impressive to this day.
It seems that each time that we visit, more of the site is cordoned off and this time, being out of season, they were doing much work on the site. Walls were being consolidated by removing the rocks of the drystone wall and replacing them with mortar between. This was done using detailed photographs so that the walls were put back exactly as they had been. In another area the grass was being cut and the Grave Circle and the Megaron on the acropolis were both roped off for reasons known only to the guardians. Although this was initially a disappointment, in some ways it was an advantage as the constant stream of coaches were depositing a huge number of visitors who would have been climbing all over these areas. The nature of the site means that it is possible to look down on almost all of the roped-off areas and we were able to see them without them being covered in people.
Being a Monday, the museum didn't open until noon, but we were able to walk to the 'Treasury of Atreus' (dated to 1300 BC), also known as 'Agamemmon's Tomb'. Both of these are incorrect and it is actually the tomb of Atreus, the treasury tag was added because it was thought that King Atreus kept his treasure there. The tomb has a huge 120 foot dromos (entrance) leading to the beehive shaped tholos tomb that is 48 feet high and over 47 feet in diameter. There are nine such tombs at Mycenae but this is the largest and is the one that attracts all of the visitors, especially all of the coach trips. There are two other tholos tombs just inside the entrance to the main site but hardly any visitors find their way there.
We had noticed on the way to the tomb that there were now so many coaches in the car park that Henrietta was completely blocked in and when we passed by again on the way to the museum, even more coaches had crammed in. Despite the crowds, the museum was very good, well presented with good information boards in English. It is easy to think of Mycenae just as the acropolis and the Treasury of Atreus but the museum makes it clear that there were houses out side of the city walls and many of the finds come from cemeteries on the hills all around the city.
We drove on to Nafplio and stopped at the harbour for lunch, overlooking the sea and the island fort in the bay. Given the temperature (nearly 30°C again), we decided to drive on the few miles to Tolo and Camping Sunset. Here we got out our table and chairs and relaxed in the shade.
Photos: View of Mycenae with new excavations at the foot of the acropolis hill; Mycenae Grave Circle A; The golden death mask from the grave circle, part of the more than 14 kg of gold found there; The 'Treasury of Artreus' – you need to imagine the doorway with two green columns (in the Athens museum), two huge wooden doors and the triangle (a device for spreading the weight above the door to the sides) covered with a red marble plaque with spiral patterns (fragments in the British Museum). The stone slab over the doorway is huge and is estimated to weigh 119 tonnes.