Tiryns

Tirynthos ( other Greek: υρυνς , Greek Τίρυνθα ) is an ancient city in Argolis , on the Peloponnese Peninsula . A fortified hilltop settlement that existed from the beginning of the Bronze Age. It flourished between 1400 and 1200 BC. e. It is noteworthy for the palace, cyclopean tunnels, walls, for which Homer called the "strong-walled Tiryns"; associated with a cycle of myths about Hercules , according to some sources - his homeland. In 464 BC e. destroyed by an earthquake. The acropolis has survived 1.5-2 km from Nafplion , the excavations were made by Schliemann in 1884 , the description was published in 1886 . After visiting the cyclopean walls of the ruins of the city in the II century BC. e. Pausanias wrote that the two mules tied together could not budge the smallest stone block.

Ancient city
Tiryns
Greek Τίρυνς , Greek Τίρυνθα
The ruins of the city. Cyclopsic structures
Ruined	468 BC e.
Causes of destruction	destroyed by argosians
Composition of the population	Greeks
Modern location	Greece , 1.5-2 km from Nafplion

UNESCO World Heritage Site
Archaeological sites of Mycenae and Tiryns [* 1]
Archaeological Sites of Mycenae and Tiryns [* 2]
A country	Greece
Type of	cultural
Criteria	i, ii, iii, iv, vi
Link	941
Region [* 3]	Europe and North America
Turning on	1999 (23rd session)

Tiryns was a fortress to protect Mycenae from the sea side. This settlement was originally located on a hill, but then the population moved to a plain in the lower reaches, where it often suffered from autumn-spring floods of a stream that went around a neighboring hill. To avoid flooding, the hill was demolished, and the stream entered into a new channel. This was, along with the Mycenaean dam, one of the largest engineering structures of the Ancient World.

In the lower city, a two-nave megaron with supports along the axis has been preserved; the two-nave halls of the end of the Mycenaean period are also known in Asin and in Eleusis. According to the scheme, these megarons are similar to those of the sixth settlement of Troy . But they arose after the death of Troy VI and, apparently, independently. With a modest size and decoration, these monuments are of particular importance in the genesis of Greek architecture. The large megaron has the same style and the same dimensions as the Pylos megaron. But the entrance portico was connected to the front entrance not by one, but by three openings. The entrance hall, as in Crete, could open under the portico. The lower part of the wall of the entrance hall was decorated with ornaments of alternating triglyphs and sockets. Next to the large megaron are two more smaller megarons with a small yard. The secondary premises of the palace had at least two floors; the question of the number of storeys of megarons is unclear. In the group of utility rooms to the west of the big megaron, a bathroom was discovered, the floor of which consists of a huge slab (3X3.5 m), smoothly hewn from above; water flowed from it into the stone drain, which was part of the sewage system.

The raw walls of the buildings in the acropolis had a base of torn stone laid in clay. Carved stone is used only for thresholds, ant bases and columns. The walls were plastered, and in many rooms decorated with frescoes. Although the technique of the frescoes is similar to the Cretan one, their style and theme are completely different (women dressed in tunics on a chariot, harassing boar dogs). The frieze of the shields in the form of eights is indistinguishable from the Palace of Knossos in Crete. The floors from the mortar are divided into checkers, which depict fish alternating with octopuses; the pattern is oriented towards the throne. The composition of the courtyard and the megaron is much more developed than in Pylos . Megaron with a portico and a front entrance is more independent, he appeared to the column yard as a clearly defined volume, the significance of which was emphasized by the altar. The contrast between the rich architecture of courtyards and megarons, with their columns, frescoes and delicate reliefs and the brute power of the cyclopean walls with heavy gates, is striking.

The time of construction of the cyclopean megalithic walls and tunnels of Tiryns was dated conditionally.

List of mythical kings of Tiryns:

• Pret - approx. 1400 years BC e.
• Megapenf - approx. 1400–1300 BC e.
• Perseus - approx. 1300 years BC e.

Perseus moved the capital to Mycenae .

The plan of the palace in Tiryns

The current state of the palace in Tiryns