DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1021#0055
THE FORTRESS-CITY 19
ridge was fashioned into three terraces, which we may term
the Lower, the Middle, and the Upper Citadel. Circuit.
The whole of the upper citadel is occupied by the waUs
palace, and this part alone is included in the detailed plan
■(Plate VIII.); but as the sketch plan (Plate VI.) shows, the
wall continues further to the north, and incloses the whole
ridge with its three terraces. The entire circuit is of Cyclo-
pean masonry; that is to say, of huge masses of rock either
unwrought or roughly dressed with the hammer and piled
one upon another, not quite irregularly, as has been held,
but with an effort at horizontal jointing and with the use of
clay mortar (now mostly washed out) as a bedding mate-
rial.1 The huge limestone blocks so impressed Pausanias2
that he declared that a yoke of mules could not stir the
smallest of them. This is an exaggeration, yet there are
actually found blocks as much as 10 feet long and more
than a yard square. The wall varies from 16 to 57 feet
in thickness, and around the lower citadel, where best pre-
served, it is still standing to a height of 24i feet.
The chief entrance is on the east or landward side, and
is approached by a gradually ascending ramp, 19 feet 4
inches broad, which starts some distance north,
and is carried along the wall on a substructure of
Cyclopean masonry until it attains the level of the upper
terrace. Here, at the north-east corner of the upper
citadel, the wall is pierced, but without either threshold or
posts to indicate the presence of a gate. Thus the entrance
appears to have been simply an open passageway. To
reach it an assailant had to make his way for a considerable
1 " All the walls of Tiryns are built with clay mortar, and this mortar,
wherever it is wanting now in the joints, has been removed by rain or other
agencies." — Dorpfeld, Tiryns, p. 337.
2 Pausanias, ii. 25, 8.
ridge was fashioned into three terraces, which we may term
the Lower, the Middle, and the Upper Citadel. Circuit.
The whole of the upper citadel is occupied by the waUs
palace, and this part alone is included in the detailed plan
■(Plate VIII.); but as the sketch plan (Plate VI.) shows, the
wall continues further to the north, and incloses the whole
ridge with its three terraces. The entire circuit is of Cyclo-
pean masonry; that is to say, of huge masses of rock either
unwrought or roughly dressed with the hammer and piled
one upon another, not quite irregularly, as has been held,
but with an effort at horizontal jointing and with the use of
clay mortar (now mostly washed out) as a bedding mate-
rial.1 The huge limestone blocks so impressed Pausanias2
that he declared that a yoke of mules could not stir the
smallest of them. This is an exaggeration, yet there are
actually found blocks as much as 10 feet long and more
than a yard square. The wall varies from 16 to 57 feet
in thickness, and around the lower citadel, where best pre-
served, it is still standing to a height of 24i feet.
The chief entrance is on the east or landward side, and
is approached by a gradually ascending ramp, 19 feet 4
inches broad, which starts some distance north,
and is carried along the wall on a substructure of
Cyclopean masonry until it attains the level of the upper
terrace. Here, at the north-east corner of the upper
citadel, the wall is pierced, but without either threshold or
posts to indicate the presence of a gate. Thus the entrance
appears to have been simply an open passageway. To
reach it an assailant had to make his way for a considerable
1 " All the walls of Tiryns are built with clay mortar, and this mortar,
wherever it is wanting now in the joints, has been removed by rain or other
agencies." — Dorpfeld, Tiryns, p. 337.
2 Pausanias, ii. 25, 8.