Mycenae, in the northeastern Peloponnese, gave its name to the Mycenaean civilization that dominated Bronze Age Greece from roughly 1600 to 1100 BC. According to legend it was the seat of Agamemnon, the king who led the Greeks against Troy in Homer’s Iliad. The site is famous for its massive “Cyclopean” fortification walls, built of stones so large that later Greeks believed only the mythical Cyclopes could have moved them, and for the Lion Gate, its monumental entrance topped by a relief of two lionesses flanking a column, the oldest surviving monumental sculpture in Europe. Highlights of the site covered on this page and its sub-pages include Grave Circle A, where Heinrich Schliemann uncovered the famous gold “Mask of Agamemnon” and other spectacular grave goods; the King’s Megaron, the palace’s throne room, with its painted floor and central hearth; the Treasury of Atreus, a beehive-shaped (tholos) royal tomb built with extraordinary precision; and Clytemnestra’s Tomb, another fine example of Mycenaean tholos construction. Special thanks to Duke University’s Professor Paul Rehak, who reviewed Dr. Siegel’s original lectures on Mycenae for accuracy.