Mount Charvati (Aghiolias) - Mycenae | Όρος Χαρβάτι (Αγιολιάς) - Μυκήναι
Trail photos
Author
Trail stats
- Distance
- 0.39 mi
- Elevation gain
- 518 ft
- Technical difficulty
- Moderate
- Elevation loss
- 0 ft
- Max elevation
- 2,628 ft
- TrailRank
- 15
- Min elevation
- 2,077 ft
- Trail type
- One Way
- Time
- 23 minutes
- Coordinates
- 281
- Uploaded
- August 29, 2023
- Recorded
- August 2023
near Mikínai, Peloponnese (Greece)
Viewed 45 times, downloaded 1 times
Trail photos
Itinerary description
Path to the peak (about 800 m above sea level) of the mountain overlooking the cytadel of Mycenae.
The mountain is named Aghiolias, i.e., Aghios Ilias (Saint Elias in Greek), after a modern chapel dedicated to the Saint built on its top, and Charvati (as the village below, now called Mykines), probably after the Ottoman Turkisk word “harâbât” (خرابات) which means “ruins”. In fact, surface ruins of Mycenae had to be visibile in the period of the Turkish occupation of Greece, if they were noted by early Western travellers in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, i.e., well in advance of the first investigations by the Greek Archeological Society of Athens in 1840 and the discovery of the royal grave circle within the citadel by Heinrich Schliemann in 1876.
On the top of the mountain, the remains of a lookout post have been found. From that post, a guard could keep watch on the two Mycenean roads leading north toward Corinth, one along the west slopes of the mountain, the other running initially eastward along its south slopes. Further, that post could be the last of an ancient optical communication system consisting of a chain of towers used to receive fire signals (φρυκτωρίαι), e.g., when an enemy was approaching, and well reflecting the myth as reported in Aeschylus tragedy Agamemnon (vv. 282-310), according to which the news of Troy’s fall was sent by Agamemnon to his wife Clytemnestra in Mycenae in only one night using fire signals.
The mountain is named Aghiolias, i.e., Aghios Ilias (Saint Elias in Greek), after a modern chapel dedicated to the Saint built on its top, and Charvati (as the village below, now called Mykines), probably after the Ottoman Turkisk word “harâbât” (خرابات) which means “ruins”. In fact, surface ruins of Mycenae had to be visibile in the period of the Turkish occupation of Greece, if they were noted by early Western travellers in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, i.e., well in advance of the first investigations by the Greek Archeological Society of Athens in 1840 and the discovery of the royal grave circle within the citadel by Heinrich Schliemann in 1876.
On the top of the mountain, the remains of a lookout post have been found. From that post, a guard could keep watch on the two Mycenean roads leading north toward Corinth, one along the west slopes of the mountain, the other running initially eastward along its south slopes. Further, that post could be the last of an ancient optical communication system consisting of a chain of towers used to receive fire signals (φρυκτωρίαι), e.g., when an enemy was approaching, and well reflecting the myth as reported in Aeschylus tragedy Agamemnon (vv. 282-310), according to which the news of Troy’s fall was sent by Agamemnon to his wife Clytemnestra in Mycenae in only one night using fire signals.
You can add a comment or review this trail
Comments