ARCHITECTURE. 33 
the most valuable property of the city, the treasure, the archives, &c.; and 
the temples of the tutelar deities were erected there for greater ado 
Numerous ruins show that almost every city had its acropolis. The oldest 
of them are known as the Cyclopean or Pelasgian walls. The number of 
cities known to have had such walls is nearly 400. 
The ruins of the acropolis of Tiryns are among the most gigantic works 
of the kind in ancient Greece. The city of Tiryns, at present Paleeo-Anapli, 
was situated in Argolis, near Nauplia, in a valley called after the hill 
upon which the acropolis was located, whose walls are the only remaining 
fragments of the place, which according to historical sources was erected by 
Tiryns the son of Argos, 1740 8. c., and was destroyed by the Argives 468 B. c. 
and the inhabitants carried to Argos. According to Pausanias the walls 
were constructed of rough stones, of so large dimensions that the smallest of 
them could not be moved by a yoke of oxen. The acropolis (pl. 8, jig. 1, plan; 
Jig. 2, view of the line ad in jig. 1) was situated upon a long rock not more 
than 30 feet high, and lying due south andnorth. The walls surround aspace 
200 feet in length, by 60 feet in width. They are from 19 to 224 feet thick, 
built in straight lines, and their highest points are still upwards of 40 feet 
in height. The blocks are 10 to 13 feet long, by 4 feet thick, and are put 
in as they came from the quarry. The original height of the walls was 
probably 55 feet. Some blocks are found inside, which are more carefully 
trimmed than the rest; they probably formed part of the entrances, which, 
according to Gell, were three. The eastern one is still in tolerably good 
preservation, and has a tower 22 feet wide, and at present of the same height, 
whose walls are constructed in a similar manner. The gateway is 154 feet 
high, the lintel about 103 feet long. It is probable that it had a front orna- 
ment, as there are two stones lying near the gate, which together form a 
triangle; whether they have been sculptured cannot be ascertained, as the 
one is very much decayed, and the other lying with its face to the ground. 
The gate swung on centre pivots secured in the sill and lintel. Inside 
the wall are two galleries whose ceiling is formed by two rows of stone 
blocks leaning against each other at an angle of 45 degrees. These galleries 
have window-like openings, which probably communicated with some 
detached construction, of which remains are traceable near them. The 
ceiling of the galleries is undoubtedly the oldest specimen of such a construc- 
tion as yet discovered in Greece, and probably the first rude attempt at the 
arch. 
Vast ruins of Cyclopean monuments are also found in the acropolis of 
Mycene, at present Karvati, in the Morea, erected about 1700 B.c. It formed 
an irregular triangle along the outlines of a hill. The walls are not all con- 
structed in the same manner, nor probably at the same time. Some parts 
are built of rectangular blocks, the joints of several courses placed in per- 
pendicular lines above each other; other parts of irregularly polygonal 
blocks ; and again others, particularly those parts near the entrances, of regu- 
lar blocks in good binding. The acropolis had three entrances. The first and 
smallest was formed by two immense stone blocks leaning against each other. 
The second and larger one was constructed of two upright massive jambs, 
ICONOGRAPHIC ENCYCLOPZDIA.—VOL, IV. 3 33 
