The Mycenaean Civilization (c. 1700-1100 BC) named after their major center, a city called Mycenae aprox 20kms North from Nafplio, the first capital of the modern Greece. Their civilization flourished during the Late Bronze Age. The Mycenaean Civilization was influenced by the Minoan one which had flourished during the Early Bronze Age and started from Knossos, Crete. The Mycenaeans dominated most of the Greek Mainland and some of the Greek Islands and had trade relations with Cyprus, Levant and Egypt.
The Mycenaeans were Greeks who created their own culture influenced by the Minoan and other Mediterranean cultures. Some of the major centers of the Mycenaean civilization were located in the Eastern Peloponnese region including, Mycenae, Tiryns, Argos, Midea, and Sparta. The largest city of all the above is the Mycenae were even today visitors can admire the citadel, tholos tombs from the 16th century BC, shaft graves, the Cyclopean Walls and the Lion Gate, the entrance made from huge stones and having the famous pair of lions.
At all the Mycenean centers there are complex buildings, all of them sharing common architecture features. All the buildings were built around a large rectangular central hall or Megaron. The Megaron consisted of an entrance porch, a vestibule and the hall itself. This was the main area of the palace that contained a large circular hearth with four wooden columns supporting a holed ceiling. Usually there was a second smaller hall, the Queens Megaron, many private apartments and other areas such as storage, administration and manufacturing. The rooms in the palace were constructed with rubble fill and cross-beamed walls that were covered with limestone blocks at the outside, plaster inside and were richly decorated with fresco paintings.
At the outside of the complex there was a huge wall, consists of huge stones that were called the Cyclopean walls, taking their name from the Cyclopes. People could not imagine how can someone move these walls rather than the Cyclopes. The Cyclopean Walls were up to 13m (42.6ft) high and up to 8m (26ft) thick. Mycenaeans used to include a terrace at the agricultural lands, damns for flood management and small bridges that were built from stone blocks.
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