On September 13, 2013, CNN published, Digging Deep: 15 Ancient Ruins You May Not Know. Included in the list of sites are the Temple and Tomb of Confucius at Qufu, China; Diocletian’s Palace in Split, Croatia; and Thebes, Egypt. But any historian, lover of history, or Phil-Hellene would recognize one site above all… Mycenae.
According to the author, Leslie Elman, the list includes ancient ruins that may not be on the average tourist’s itinerary, but should be a must to visit.
One thing of Mycenae that the other ancient ruins do not have – it will forever be linked with Troy, of Agamemnon, the Trojan Horse, Achilles, and a slew of other famous players in Homer’s Iliad. Mycenae is in the center of it all. It is where the Iliad begins and where it ends, and the ruins at Mycenae, and German archaeologist, Heinrich Schliemann’s alleged discovery of the golden “Mask of Agamemnon” from a tomb in Troy 1876, brings the story of the Iliad alive and one step closer to proving its reality.
With its beehive-shaped tombs and the Lion Gate of the 14th Century BCE palace, visitors to the site are in awe knowing that it is here where Helen’s face launched 1,000 ships and the epic Trojan War began. CNN has brought Mycenae back to the forefront and every tourist that visit Greece should visit Mycenae.