La Bastida unearths 4,200-year-old fortification, unique in continental Europe

Similar characteristics have not been observed in other constructions of the Bronze Age, with three-metre thick walls, square towers originally measuring up to seven metres, a monumental entrance and an ogival arched postern gate; a fully conserved architectural element unique in Europe in that period.

The wall protected a city measuring 4 hectares located on top of a hill. With architectural elements reminiscent of people with Eastern styled military skills, its model is typical of ancient civilisations of the Mediterranean, such as the second city of Troy.

Heinrich Schliemann's excavations at Mycenae

Heinrich Schliemann excavated at Mycenae in 1876. He excavated several graves finding many golden funerary gifts. He was convinced that the graves, and the bodies he found within them, were those of Agamemnon, Cassandra, Eurymedon, Clymestra, and Aegisthus but this is debatable. 

Archaeologists have disputed his beliefs ever since. However, there is no doubt is that Heinrich found undeniably ancient and wonderful things. Understanding Heinrich Schliemann’s excavations at Mycenae, and the still raging controversy about them among archaeologists, is impossible without understanding a little about the man.

The Theban Stories

The great Greek playwright Sophocles (c. 496-406 B.C.) describes the city of Thebes "as the only city where women are mothers of gods." He refers to the mothers of the divine Dionysus and Heracles [see Parents of Hercules], Semele and Alcmene, both of whom were born in this ancient Greek Boeotian city. [Source: (Sophocles fragment [773 Radt]) - Michael Gagarin and Elaine Fantham.]

With such a claim to fame, it is small wonder that many of the stories from Greek tragedy and Greco-Roman mythology feature Thebes.