Notwithstanding the remote antiquity of Mycenæ, its ruins are in a far better state of preservation than those of any of the Greek cities which Pausanias saw in a flourishing condition, and whose sumptuous monuments he describes (about 170 A.D.); and, owing to its distant and secluded position, and to the rudeness, magnitude, and solidity of the ruins, it is hardly possible to think that any change can have taken place in the general aspect of Mycenæ since it was seen by Pausanias. [Illustration: No. 21. Gate of the Lions.] [Illustration: PLATE III. GATE OF THE LIONS. The Principal Entrance to the Acropolis of Mycenæ. _To face page 32._ ] In the north-western corner of the circuit-wall is the great "Lions' Gate," of beautiful hard breccia.[109] The opening, which widens from the top downwards, is 10 ft. 8 in. high, and its width is 9 ft. 6 in. at the top, and 10 ft. 3 in. below. In the lintel (15 feet long and 8 feet broad) are round holes, 6 inches deep, for the hinges, and in the two uprights, which it roofs over, are four quadrangular holes for the bolts. Over the lintel of the gate is a triangular gap in the masonry of the wall, formed by an oblique approximation of the side courses of stone. The object of this was to keep off the pressure of the superincumbent wall from the flat lintel. [Sidenote: GATE OF THE LIONS.] This niche is filled up by a triangular slab of the same beautiful breccia of which the gateway and the walls consist: it is 10 feet high, 12 feet long at the base, and 2 feet thick. On the face of the slab are represented in relief two lions, standing opposite to each other on their long outstretched hind-legs, and resting with their fore-paws on either side of the top of an altar, on the midst of which stands a column with a capital formed of four circles enclosed between two horizontal fillets. The general belief that the heads of the lions are _broken off_ is wrong, for on close examination I find that they were _not_ cut out of the same stone together with the animals, but that they were made separately and fastened on the bodies with bolts. The straight cuts and the borings in the necks of the animals can leave no doubt as to this fact. Owing to the narrowness of the space, the heads could only have been very small, and they must have been protruding and facing the spectator. I feel inclined to believe that they were of bronze and gilded. The tails of the lions are not broad and bushy, but narrow, like those which are seen in the most ancient sculptures of Egypt. [Illustration: No. 22. Plan of the Gate of Lions. (_a_) Wall of Acropolis on E. side. (_b_) Face of projecting masonry on W. side. (_c_) Gateway and Cill. (_d_) Inner Gateway.]