On the eastern side is the only gate, which is 15 feet broad. It is approached by a ramp 20 feet wide, which is supported by a wall of Cyclopean masonry.[35] The right flank of the gate is defended by a tower 43 feet high and 33 feet broad, which may have procured for the Tirynthians the credit of having been the first to build towers.[36] In this place the walls are better preserved than anywhere else, and they rise considerably above the flat summit of the mount within the Acropolis or citadel. This citadel consists of an upper enclosure on the south, and a lower one on the north side; both are of about equal size, and are divided by an abrupt slope, 14 feet high, which was fortified by a Cyclopean wall of minor proportions. In this wall I perceive some stones shaped by art, and some even rectangular, which leads me to think that it belongs to a later time than the Cyclopean circuit walls. In the upper enclosure are a number of terraces supported by Cyclopean walls. Through all antiquity the Greeks themselves looked upon the walls of Tiryns as a work of the demons. Pausanias[37] regards them as a structure more stupendous than the Pyramids of Egypt; and Homer manifests his admiration of them by the epithet "τειχιόεσσα," which he applies to Tiryns.[38] [Sidenote: HISTORY OF TIRYNS.] According to ancient tradition, Tiryns was founded (about 1400 B.C.) by Prœtus, who was its first king, and whose son Megapenthes ceded the town to Perseus, the builder of Mycenæ. Perseus gave it to Electryon, whose daughter Alcmena, the mother of Hercules, married Amphitryon, who was expelled by Sthenelus, the king of Mycenæ and Argos. Hercules conquered Tiryns and inhabited it for a long time, in consequence of which he is often called the Tirynthian.[39] On the return of the Heraclidæ (80 years after the Trojan war) Mycenæ itself, as well as Tiryns, Hysiæ, Mideia, and other cities, were forced to increase the power of Argos, and were reduced to the condition of dependent towns. Tiryns remained nevertheless in the hands of its Achæan population, and, together with Mycenæ, took part in the battle of Platææ with 400 men.[40] In consequence of this event the name of Tiryns was engraved, among those of the other Greek cities which had fought there, on the bronze column with the golden tripod-stand, which the Spartans dedicated as the tithe of the booty to the Pythian Apollo at Delphi. The glory which Tiryns thus acquired excited the envy of the Argives, who had taken no part in the Persian war, and who also began to consider that city as a very dangerous neighbour; particularly when it had fallen into the hands of their insurgent slaves (Γυμνήσιοι), who maintained themselves for a long time behind its Cyclopean walls and dominated the country.[41] The insurgents were finally subdued, but soon afterwards (Ol. 78, 1; 468 B.C.) the Argives destroyed the city, demolished part of its Cyclopean walls, and forced the Tirynthians to emigrate to Argos.[42] But according