Mycenae · The King in the Mask

The Lion Gate at Mycenae is built of blocks weighing several tonnes, with two lions flanking a column above the lintel. The shaft graves inside the walls yielded gold masks, diadems and weapons — the excavator declared at once that this was the tomb of Agamemnon, and the telegram read, “I have looked upon the face of Agamemnon.”

Later dating put the burials more than three hundred years before the Trojan War of the legend.

The grave circle is open to visitors. Greeks called these walls “built by the Cyclopes” — they did not believe ordinary people could move such stones.

Historical Mysteries / Peloponnese · Greece / 1600 BC