Wall-Girt Tiryns

...as Homer called it, is a 13th century BC Mycenean fortress a few miles from Nafplio. It is about the size of a standard Edward castle in Wales and is, similarly, a largely defensive undertaking: high walls, gates that, if breached, lead into killing-fields, cisterns accessible only from within, and all the rest. The medieval military architects had nothing on the Myceneans, 2500 years earlier. The most impressive thing about Tiryns, I thought, was the sheer size of the stones employed in its building. The classical Greeks attributed the building of these Mycenean structures to the Cyclopes, a race of giants, hence their description as Cyclopean. Anyhow, I was pretty impressed.

Ramp leading to main gate

Along the ramp; these stones are mostly 8x4x4 feet or so, very roughly cut

Palace area at the top of the fortress

Passage-way within the walls

Toward another gate, more monumental stone-work

Another view

View of walls from sea-side

Length of the sea-side wall; the whole fortress is about 1500 meters around