Ancient civilization: Mycenae

Sunday, March 5, 2017

Ancient civilization: Mycenae
by David Weng & Peter Zhang

The Lion Gate
The Entrance of Mycenae

During the third day of our academic trip, we went to the city Mycenae. When we arrived Mycenae, I thought it just a place of lots of tombs. In fact, it was an unbelievable city on the mountain. Because the long trip we took by bus, everybody were very tired, and half of people from our group didn’t go to the top of Mycenae. But the view on the top of Mycenae is incredible if you stand on the top watching the wild mountains around Mycenae, trees, flowers and grass. You will deeply feel the the feeling of the ancient kings. Watching the natural mountains around, and walking from the back side of the city to go back to the foot of the mountain is the one of the best way to feel the charm of Mycenae.

According to Wikipedia, Mycenae is an archaeological site in Greece, located about 90 kilometers southwest of Athens, in the north-eastern Peloponnese. Argos is 11 kilometers to the south; Corinth, 48 kilometers to the north. From the hill on which the palace was located, one can see across the Argolid to the Saronic Gulf. In the second millennium BC, Mycenae was one of the major centres of Greek civilization, a military stronghold which dominated much of southern Greece. The period of Greek history from about 1600 BC to about 1100 BC is called Mycenaean in reference to Mycenae. At its peak in 1350 BC, the citadel and lower town had a population of 30,000 and an area of 32 hectares.