Temple of Olympia
Pictures of Greece
Mikinai
Mikinai is an akropolis set upon a small hilltop in a glen between Mount Ayios Elias and Mount Zara, six miles from Argos and commanding the road to Corinth and the Isthmus leading to the north. The site was occupied from the beginning of the Bronze Age by pre-Hellenic peoples. Greek-speaking people arrived in the Middle Bronze Age, but it is in the Late Bronze Age that Mikinai reached its greatest days.
Mikinai in legend was the royal seat of the ill-fated House of Atreus, and it was from Mikinai that Agamemnon went as leader of the Achaean expedition against Troy. He returned victorious, but was murdered by his wife Clytemnestra and her lover, Aegisthus.
Heinrich Schliemann excavated the site in the 1870s, and just inside the Lion Gate entrance (which had never been covered over), he uncovered a grave circle of royal tombs. Schliemann later uncovered a large circular tomb a short distance from the fortress, which he believed to be the tomb of Agamemnon, although modern thinking places Agamemnon's grave in the original circle of royal tombs, shown here.
In 1952 CE, Professor A J B Wace began a series of excavations outside the walls, which brought to light a number of houses that contained a number of clay tablets, evidence that reading and writing were known to the citizens of Mikinai. These houses can still be seen today, by the side of the modern road.
A number of houses have also been found inside the walls of the fortress, and it appears that excavation of these continues.
One building within the fortress that has until recently concealed its original purpose is the House of Columns. Wall foundations map out a series of rooms or small dwellings, interspersed with column bases. Recent excavation has revealed that this was in fact an eastern wing of the palace used primarily for storage.
Pausanius had mentioned that Clytemnestra and Aegisthus had been buried outside the walls, and two majestic grave areas have been discovered just outside the Lion Gate. While the closest, thought to be that of Aegisthus, is sealed off, it is possible to enter the tomb of Clytemnestra, shown here.
The fortress of Mikinai was not large by today's standards, but for a period between 1500 and 1100 BCE it was the centre of an empire that covered much of modern-day Greece, as well as parts of Turkey. In later years Mikinai's power waned, and the fortress was eventually destroyed by the Argives (people of Argos) in the 5th century BCE.
