The Acropolis of Mycenae
The town of Mycanae was built at the top of a hill that commanded the farmland below it. Since the city was built atop a hill, it was called an "Acropolis" (high city). This area just outside the main city wall was another set of royal graves. The noted archaeologist, Heinrich Schliemann, first excavated Mycenae in the mid-19th Century and unearthed these tombs. Inside he found gold death masks, swords and a horde of gold jewelry. Modern scholars believe that these circular graves pre-date those burial mounds we had just visited on the opposite side of the road. Incidently, Scliemann later went on to discover the site of Ancient Troy in Turkey.
Greece achieved its independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1829. During the second half of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century, it gradually added neighboring islands and territories, most with Greek-speaking populations. In Worl... ... read more 
