Main Page | See live article | Alphabetical index

Tiryns

Tiryns is a Mycenaean site in the Peloponnesian peninsula in Greece. Tiryns was a hill fort with occupation ranging back to 5000 BCE. It reached its height between c. 1400 and 1200 BCE. Its most notable features were its palace, its cyclopean tunnels and especially its walls, which gave the city its Homeric epithet of "mighty walled Tiryns".

The site went into decline at the end of the Mycenaean period, and was completely deserted by the time Pausanias visited in the 2nd Century BC. This site was excavated by Heinrich Schliemann in 1876, and is the subject of ongoing excavations.

Visitors to the site might like to know that the top of the hill has been liberally concreted, giving it a feel of part hill fort and part helicopter landing site.