The mycenaean dam of Tiryns
Two kilometres east of Nea (New) Tiryns and about 5 km from the citadel of Tiryns, a unique technical achievement of antiquity has been located. In this area is an enormous embankment, originally lined with boulders at its ends – some boulders can still be seen today – built to divert the rainwater of the Manesis torrent that apparently flowed towards Tiryns and caused floods in the Early Bronze Age (EH II). In parallel with the construction of the dam, a diversion channel was opened towards the southwest, which carried the waters south of Profitis Ilias hill into the bed of another torrent (Ramadani). The dam should be dated in the 13th century BC, that is the period of Tiryns’ heyday, and is comparable to the Mycenaeans’ large-scale drainage works in Lake Kopais, Boeotia.
