4 h. tour (Private tour)
(transportation + local guidance in Mycenae citadel and the treasury of Atreus + free time)
You will be met by your driver at the port, where you will get off the tender boats. With your private vehicle you will depart from the beautiful city of Nafplion and you will be driven for about 30 minutes to the archaeological site of Mycenae passing through the lush valley of Argolis with its many olive groves, lemon and orange trees. On your way you will drive pass the Mycenean citadel of Tiryns and you will be impressed by its remaining cyclopean walls.
Once in Mycenae you will be met by your officially licensed tour guide and you will board an approximately two hour private guided tour through the treasury house of Atreus and the ancient citadel.
The Mycenaeans were very strategic and were always choosing the places to build their citadels having always in mind the defensive advantage over the attacks by their enemies. There was only one way to reach the citadel and that was extremely well fortified, even more than what they really needed. The cyclopean walls, consisted by huge conglomerate blocks of local stone, still make us wonder how they managed to move them all the way up there.
You will first stop and visit the beehive tomb of Agamemnon, as most of the locals call it, although the official name of it is the treasure of Atreus. Walk inside the tomb passing the ancient pass that was leading to its one and only entrance and enter the tomb that still stands intact. Once inside you will see another smaller gate leading to an extra room, the treasury house of it.
Afterwards you will get back to your private vehicle for a short drive up the hill. From the parking of the site you will start ascending towards the citadel, seeing parts of the ancient city and two more beehive tombs on one hand and the cyclopean walls on the other. Take a deep breath as you finally reach the legendary Lions' Gate, the one and only official entrance to the citadel. The grave circle A is inside the walls and was excavated by Heinrich Schliemann. Among the several skeletons on fetal position were found jewellery, seal stone rings and golden masks that were weighting 14 kilos in total. This huge treasure from the grave circle A is now in display in the national archaeological museum of Athens.
At the end of your guided tour you will be given some free time to walk further up the citadel and reach the top, where the palace with two floors used to exist and for the more adventurous of you, you can even walk down the other side where the underground spring exists or to where the secret gate of the citadel was that only a few knew of its existence. Be prepared for a lot of hiking on steep rocks and to being exposed to the weather conditions since there are almost no trees inside the citadel today.
On your way down you can also make a small deviation and go visit the museum of Mycenae, which although it mostly has copies of the treasures that are displayed in Athens, it still is very interesting.
As soon as you meet your driver back at the parking area, you will be offered the drive back to Nafplion and either you can get back to your ship, or if time allows it you can enjoy walking around the old city.
