When I read the Ilias, I was always wondering about the place names. Where was Athens, where was Sparta? And why was there no king of Troy fighting in the Persian wars? The answer is that the events and locations of the Ilias predate what most of us consider ancient Greece by centuries. Athens reigned supreme between 500-400 BCE. But the Trojan War is assumed to have taken place 800 years before around 1300 BCE. In addition, the events of the Ilias squarely fall into the Bronze Age. And there is this little thing called the Bronze Age Collapse taking place around 1150 BCE. And it removed the events from the Ilias even further from view.

The Bronze Age Collapse refers to a dark age of 100-200 years where in a relatively short time period most major civilizations and empires of the eastern mediterranean fell. In Karnak, there is a relief depicting the pharaoh beating back the so called sea people. While Egypt made it through, the Bronze Age Collapse marks the end of the Mycenaean kingdoms.

One assumption is that the advent of iron meant that military weapons became more widely available. While bronze required trade to obtain both zinc and copper and was thus limited to a palace elite (palace economy), iron was easier to obtain and process.

It was up to Heinrich Schliemann to excavate this mythical site. What you can visit today at Mycenae is a fortified acropolis on a central pass. Views are great and the lion gate stunning. In addition, there is a large tomb you can enter and an onsite museum. Tiryns is the lesser of the two site. It's a massive, but rather simple fortification. Near Tiryns there is also a dam and another tomb grave you can visit.

When I visited, I got really lucky. A few hours after I left, the area around Mycenae was in flames.

Getting There

There are regular busses from Athens to Nafplio via Isthmus, Fichti, and Argos. If you get off at Fichti, it's 3.5km walk to Mycenae. Between Argos and Nafplio are local busses (every 30-60min) that stop in front of Tiryns. You can see it well from the street on your way to Nafplio. From Nafplio you can also connect to Tripoli.

They sell a combined ticket (20€) for Mycenae and Tiryns that also covers multiple museums (Byzantine Museum Argos, Archeological Museum Nafplio) and another archeological site. If you plan to visit both sites, it would make sense to get it.

While You Are There

Epidauros is nearby. Getting there by public transport is hard, so I would arrange a taxi to take you and wait for you at the site. Argos has a nice amphitheatre (T) and agora and a Frankish castle. and Nafplio has three late medieval fortifications (T). In general, Nafplio, the first capital of Greece in modern times, is quite pleasant and I would recommend using the town as base.