Places We Visit

The huge limestone boulders, fitted together rather roughly, are the characteristic of the Cyclopean Walls of Mycenae Archaeological Site. Because these boulders are very big in size, the ancient people believed that it was the Cyclops who built these gates, as they thought it impossible for men to move such big rocks. For this reason these walls were named Cyclopean Walls.
They can be reached by our 1 Day tour to Mycenae and they are a marvel of sight.

Notably they rarely used the hammer for the construction of these walls and thus they fit very roughly together. Smaller limestone filled the cracks or gaps between the boulders. Dating since the 13th century AD, these Cyclopean walls are the characteristic feature of the Mycenaean architecture. Archaeologists noticed that this type of architecture can be seen in other Mycenaean towns, too, such as Tyrins or Argos.

However, Harry Thurston Peck, in 1898, divided Cyclopean architecture in four styles. The first style consists of stones of various size filled in between with smaller stones. The second style consists of polygonal stones that fit precisely. The third style is characterized by stone of unequal size but of the same height and the fourth is known for its rectangular stones of unequal height. The walls in Mycenae match to the third style.