From Athens we go by minibus to Argolida – the area in the Peloponnese. The road goes past orange and olive groves. We stop at Corinth.
Corinth Canal connecting the Aegean and Ionian Seas. It began to be built even by Periander in the 7th century BC, his business was continued by Julius Caesar, Caligula and Nero. The construction of the canal was completed in 1893. That’s what I understand, a long construction! Millennium-long construction. The height of the walls of the channel is 76 meters, the water depth in it is 8 meters. The length of the channel is 6 kilometers. The blue of its water and depth takes my breath away and it’s a little scary that the phone will fall down and I will fall with it.
We drive through low and green mountains and valleys.
Here is the long-awaited Mycenae – a city that is 3000 years old. The heyday of Mycenae came in the 13th century BC. According to one legend, the city of Mycenae was founded by Perseus. From 1700 to 1001 BC e. Mycenaean civilization developed and lived its tumultuous life. Her material traces can be seen in the local museum. Mycenae was excavated and pulled out of oblivion by Heinrich Schliemann in 1876. After he discovered Troy, following his belief in myths and intuition, he went to search for Mykonos gold. I think that Heinrich Schliemann had inclusions and experience of past lives in these cities. Mycenae and Troy were fortress cities, so to speak, of the same order. They existed at one time. As we know from history, residents visited each other. On one of these visits, the Trojans led by Paris, the city of Sparta, whose king was Menelaus, the son of Atreus, was abducted by Elena. Atreus is the legendary Mycenaean ruler mentioned in the history of Herodotus. His sons Menelaus – the king of Sparta and the husband of Helen of Troy and Agamemnon – the king of Mycenae. Kings Menelaus and Agamemnon fought together against Troy and returned home victorious. Troy was the richest city of the time. The brothers did not return home empty-handed. Agamemnon was a prominent figure in the Trojan War – he led the Greek army. The king was killed by his wife Clytemnestra, who avenged him for the sacrificial murder of their daughter Iphigenia and for the murder of the first child and husband of the queen.
Mycenae is a fortress on a mountain, surrounded by a cyclopean wall, 14 meters high. The Lion Gate is the entrance to the Acropolis.
There are tombs in front of the wall. It used to be that the dead guard the living. Heinrich Schliemann discovered here 6 large stone wells in which 19 skeletons in masks made of pure gold were found. One skeleton was in the form of a mummy. Also found here swords, bowls, gold discs. The largest discovery by archaeologists in Mycenae is 9 domed tombs, of which the largest king Atreus, then the tomb of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra, his wife.
Through the lion’s gate we enter the city. The road to the city leads past the tombs and treasures of Atreus. There are not many cities of the age of Troy on earth. We rise to the very top of the hill. it offers views of the city and the mountains with the gorges surrounding it.
If we talk about places of power, then, of course, there is an unusual energy. In this place one feels something different from the Acropolis and Greek civilization.
This is especially noticeable in the museum: other ornaments on vases, differently made weapons and faces of clay figures and the figures themselves look unusual for us.
In Mycenae, I realized that Troy and Mycenae had much in common and were strongholds that survived from previous, even earlier civilizations. I had a feeling of touching something powerful, higher, not like our world.
We leave from Mycenae through the north gate. From here you can see a thick stone wall encircling the city. Now this wall is not too high, but it is clear that it has gone deep into the ground.
Then we approach the museum, and after it, on the road going down, we go to the treasury of Tsar Atreus. It is a stone pyramid or barrow. Its shape reminds me of the inside of the Red Pyramid in Egypt and the royal mound in Kerch.
I realized that I had never met the mention of so many legendary personalities at once – Perseus, Atreus, Agamemnon, Menelaus, Elena the Beautiful. Homer and Herodotus described the events of the Mycenaean era. The life of King Mycenaean Agamemnon is associated with the most legendary inhabitants of the ancient world – Odysseus and Achilles, Tyndareus and Cassandra. I look at the posthumous golden mask from the Mycenaean tomb and see other facial features and characters. To understand and feel the difference of that life allowed the current Mycenae.
21.04.19г.
Belena Travel Blog 