Tiryns

Tiryns, an ancient city of Argolis, in the Peloponnesus, situated a short distance SE. of Argos, about 3 miles from the head of the Argolic Gulf. In fable it was founded by Proetus, brother of Acrisius, and predecessor of Perseus, and here the early life of Hercules (Tirynthius) was spent. About 468 B.C. the city was destroyed by the Argives, but the ruined walls of the citadel remained the wonder of later ages. The Cyclopean walls of Tiryns and of the neighbouring city of Mycenæ are the grandest in Greece. The citadel was built on an oval-shaped rock, 330 yards long by 112 at its widest, fringed by a wall, 30 to 40 feet thick, and about 50 feet high (from the outside base), composed of blocks, bedded in clay, 10 feet long by 3½ wide. The area of the city was divided into three parts at successive levels, and one of these was completely excavated by Schliemann in 1884-85, thus exposing the complete plan of a Greek palace of the 11th or 10th century B.C. See Dr Schliemann's Tiryns (Lond. 1886).