MYCENAE

This city is known to everyone who is at least a little interested in ancient history, ancient literature, or at least once visited the Pushkin Museum in Moscow.

Mycenae was an important center of the ancient world at the end of the Bronze Age. That’s why the first Greek civilization was called the Crete-Mycenaean. The legendary King Agamemnon reigned here in prehistoric times. He led the campaign of the Achaeans to Troy. Many Homeric characters come from here and the most famous archaeological finds were discovered right here.

According to the myths, the city was built by Perseus (the son of Zeus and Danai), and the walls were built of giant stones by giant cyclops and were defending the Mycenae. The mighty Atreid dynasty came in place of the successors of Perseus. Mycenae having lost their power after the conquest of the Peloponnese by the Dorians and gradually decay and disappear from the map of the Greek world.

Only in 1876 Heinrich Schliemann discovered the first royal tomb with the remains of a king with a golden mask. The myths became a reality thanks to the German archaeologist enthusiasm in search of Troy.

The famous building "Lion's Gate" leads to the acropolis of Mycenae. This structure has survived to our days. It was built of huge stones and decorated with a bas-relief depicting two lionesses and symbolize the power of the royal dynasty. The staircase from the "Lions Gate" leads to the royal palace with a "megaron", which is a rectangular room with a hearth in the middle. Around the "megaron" there were living quarters and bathrooms, corridors and storerooms. From the royal chambers, only the foundation was preserved. You can also recognize the part of the basement of the red room where King Agamemnon was killed by his wife Clytemnistra.

Not far from the walls of the acropolis there are Mycenaean dome tombs famous to the whole world. The largest and most impressive of them preserved to this day. This is the "Treasury of Atreus". Dimensions of the tomb and its architectural features suggest that inside it was the tomb of someone from Mycenaean rulers.
Every year thousands of tourists come to Mycenae to touch the revived history and immerse themselves in the inexpressible atmosphere of the past.

In 45 km from Mykines there is Epidavros. In Epidaurus you can find Asklepion (the so-called "Asclepius") which was the most important spa and sanatorium center of the ancient world millennia ago.

Here, a huge number of visitors flocked from all the known to the Greeks universe in search of the help of the god-healer Asclepius. They said that people went to Epidaurus to "breathe the tasty air". The abundance of different vegetation on these mountainous slopes creates a unique "cocktail" of smells, which are "tasty" to this day.

There is also one of the most important attraction of Epidaurus. This is the ancient theater, which existed already in the 7th century BC and perfectly preserved to our times.