Destinations / Peloponnese / Ancient Tiryns

Ancient Tiryns Destinations Tours in Greece Peloponnese Epos Travel Tours

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On the edge of the Argolic gulf, Tiryns is located between Nafplio and Argos. Archaeological excavations in the area took place in 1884-1885 by Henry Schliemann, which brought to light the ancient Tiryns and its famous “cyclopean” walls, which, according to myth, the Cyclops themselves built. (Homer, B 559)
The size of the bulwarks used mainly for the walls of the third phase has raised the wonder and admiration since antiquity, which is reflected directly in the myth of the Cyclops

The first mythical king of the city was Proitos, the brother of Akrisios, the king of Argos.

According to mythology, the King of Tiryns Eurystheus ordered the hero Heracles’s Labours.

The earliest human occupation on the hill goes back to the Neolithic period (about 5000 B.C.). It was followed by successive settlementsbut their remains have been destroyed almost completely by the extensive construction arrangement of the Mycenaean age. Enough evidence survived from the settlement of the Early Bronze Age (2500-2000 B.C.) to prove the existence then of a series of apsidal houses arranged around a huge circular building (diam. 28 m) on the summit of the hill.
Ancient Tiryns~Epos Travel & Tours
The building of the fortification of the hill began during the 14th century B.C. and was completed at the end of the 13th century (Late Helladic IIIB period).
The Cyclopaean wallswhich surround the Upper, Middle and Lower Citadel, have a total perimeter of approximately 750 m and a width between 4,50 and 7 m. Within the walls were planned the wall-painted palace, the remaining public spaces, the cyclopaean tunnels leading to the storehouses and the workshops. The town, divided into blockhouses, extended outside the walls and around the Acropolis (about 750 acres).
After the disintegration of the palatial system (about 1200 B.C.), the Acropolis continued to be used mostly as a cult place. The site had been deserted when Pausanias visited it during the 2d century A.D.

Ancient Tiryns~Epos Travel & Tours

Ancient Tiryns~Epos Travel & Tours
The archaeological investigations of the ancient Tiryns are tightly linked with the name of Heinrich Schliemann who in 1876 opened the first trenches in the Acropolis and the site outside the walls. In 1884/5, during five months of extensive excavations, he uncovered, with his valuable assistant, W. Doepfeld, part of the Upper Citadel. Between 1905 and 1920, the investigations were resumed by the German Archaeological Institute on the Acropolis and its wider surrounding area. At the end of the ’50’s, excavations in the area were undertaken under the supervision of the Ephore of Antiquities, N. Verdelis. From 1967 onwards, the German Archaeological Institute returned to the site and with further extensive excavations, directed by Ulf Jantzen and Klaus Kilian, the whole of the Upper and the Lower Citadel, part of the mycenaean town in the wider area around the walls, as well as part of the Iron Age Cemetery were uncovered.
The finds from the excavation of Tiryns are exhibited in the National Archaeological Museum and the Archaeological Museum of Nauplio.

Author Dr. Alkistis Papadimitriou
The text is cited from The Hellenic Ministry of Culture & Tourism WebPage

Map of Ancient Tiryns

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Tracing the steps of Hercules in the Peloponnese and Delphi – 10 days

Get ready for an amazing 10-day / 9-night, high-end Culture Route program that combines astonishingly the private tour of the impressive Greek Mythology of seven of the twelve tribes of Heracles in the Peloponnese.