Mycenae and Tiryns

What it is

Mycenae, Homer's “rich in gold”, was the great palace centre of the Late Bronze Age in Greece. According to myth it was founded by Perseus, son of Zeus and Danae. There are traces of life from the Neolithic, but its splendour came between 1350 and 1200 BC, when the palaces, the Cyclopean walls, the Lion Gate and the great tholos tombs were built. Tiryns, halfway from Nafplio, is the other Mycenaean citadel of the Argolid, and both are UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Together they fill a morning.

What you see at Mycenae

The Cyclopean walls. Blocks so large that legend said the Cyclopes raised them at the command of Perseus.

The Lion Gate. From the mid-13th century BC, it is the main entrance to the acropolis: two lions in relief, face to face, over an altar. It is the image of Mycenae.

Grave Circle A. Here Heinrich Schliemann dug in 1876 and found jewels, vases, weapons and the gold mask known as the Mask of Agamemnon. Those pieces are today in the National Archaeological Museum in Athens.

The Treasury of Atreus. Outside the citadel is the most splendid tholos tomb of Mycenaean culture. The doorway has a 120-tonne lintel and inside the dome reaches 13.5 m high and 14.5 m in diameter. Neither Atreus nor Agamemnon is buried here for certain: the name was given by Schliemann and stuck.

The museum. Inside the site, with finds from Mycenae.

Mycenae hours and tickets

• April: 8:00 to 19:00.
• 1 May to 31 August: 8:00 to 20:00.
• September: until 19:30 in the first half and until 19:00 in the second.
• October: until 18:30 in the first half and until 18:00 in the second.
• 1 November to 31 March: 8:30 to 15:30.

Last entry 20 minutes before closing. The ticket, €20 (reduced €10), includes the citadel, the museum and the Treasury of Atreus. There is a café, shop, toilets, parking and accessible entrances.

Tiryns

Tiryns is beside the Argos road, ten minutes by car from Nafplio. Its Cyclopean walls of reddish-grey blocks already amazed Pausanias in the 2nd century, and the site lay buried under sediment until Schliemann excavated it in 1884. You can walk the wall with its underground galleries, the western bastion, the megaron with its throne room, the lower citadel and the foundations of a Geometric and Archaic temple.

It is open all year from 8:30 to 15:30, including in summer. Entry costs €10 (reduced €5). It has toilets and parking. On foot, it is about 40 minutes from the village of Nea Tiryntha, and KTEL buses stop there.

Free days and under-25s

At both sites under-25s from the EU enter free with ID or passport. For everyone, it is free on 6 March, 18 April, 18 May, the last weekend of September, 28 October and the first and third Sunday of each month from November to March. Both close on 1 January, 25 March, 1 May, Easter Sunday and 25 and 26 December. Tickets can also be bought online on the Hellenic Heritage ticketing website.

How to organise it

Mycenae is about 24 km from Nafplio, half an hour by car, and 20 minutes from Argos. From Athens, an hour and a half. The logical order: leave Nafplio early, stop at Tiryns when it opens, at 8:30, and continue to Mycenae. Allow half a day for both.

Without a car, Landlife Travel, an agency in Argos, runs five-hour tours with pick-up at your hotel or Nafplio harbour: Mycenae and Epidaurus in a small group from €90 per person, or privately with an official guide inside the sites from €100; tickets are extra and they ask for a minimum of two people. It also has a combination of Mycenae with Nemea wineries from €120. The afternoon is completed with Epidaurus, in the opposite direction.

With children and in summer

Mycenae is a hillside site, with slopes and stone, and almost no shade. In July and August go in when it opens and bring water and a hat. Children enjoy the Lion Gate and going inside the dome of the Treasury of Atreus.