§ XII.—Hagios Elias

Abstract

The citadel of Mycenae owes much of its impressiveness to the fact that it lies at the foot of and between the twin heights of Hagios Elias to the north and Zara to the south. These two bare peaks of limestone rise very steeply, and seem to stand like two sentinels specially posted by nature to add to the dignity of Mycenae. Their mountain wildness is in strong contrast to the smiling fertility of the Argive plain, which stretches away to the south-west. Zara is some 659 m. high, and has no remains of antiquity on its summit. Hagios Elias is higher, some 807 m., and has been known, since the days of Schliemann, to be crowned by the ruins of ancient fortifications.We made an expedition to the summit on the evening of June 18th, 1922, camped for the night there, and spent the next day in planning the walls and making trial excavations within them. The view from the summit is magnificent (Fig. 96). To the south the whole of the Argive plain lies at one's feet; Argos itself, Lerna, Tiryns, Mideia, Nauplia and Asine are all visible.