Harry's Peloponnese Guide: Ancient Tiryns (Tyrins) Argos Prefecture Page 3

Its "Cyclopean" walls are famous as the finest examples of Mycenaean military architecture, much praised by such authors as Homer, Pindar and Pausanias and the interior of the palace was more elaborate than those of either Pylos or Mycenae.

The walls stretch for 700 meters/about 300 feet enclosing the fortress and are made of two kinds of limestone, red and grey in irregular sized blocks, the biggest of which weigh as much as 14,000 kg (30,800 lbs or approximately 15tons).

The lower part of the fortress walls are more regular and there the walls are 7-8meters thick, but in the upper part, broken by towers and the like they vary between 5-11meters in thickness. Their original height was around 20 meters.

On the east side is the entrance ramp (right) (about 5 meters wide) wide enough to accommodate chariots, and angled in such as way as to leave invaders unprotected on one side as they approached.

In addition, beyond the gateway was a passage between the outer rampart and inner wall of the castle (11meter/36 feet high at this point), where attackers who managed to get through the gate were totally vulnerable to attack from every side by hurled weapons.

The main entrance shows no sign of a gate, but the Outer Gateway of the lower citadel is marked by a huge stone threshold (4meters/13 feet long) with holes that were obviously used for hinges and a socket in one of the jambs for the wooden bar that held the doors (now absent) shut.

This gateway compares in size with the Lion Gateway at Mycenae. Six chambers were built within the walls which were used as barracks or storerooms. (see plan above #6)The Great Propylaia is a double porch divided by a wall, with a single doorway in it.

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