page_title: Tomb of Clytemnestra
section_title: Architecture
hierarchical_section_title: Tomb of Clytemnestra / Architecture
caption_attribution_description: English: Inside the tomb of Clytemnestra. Français&#160;: Tombe de Clytemnestre. Intérieur de la coupole.
context_page_description: The Tomb of Clytemnestra was a Mycenaean tholos type tomb built in c. 1250 BC. A number of architectural features such as the semi-column were largely adopted by later classical monuments of the first millennium BC, both in the Greek and Latin world. The Tomb of Clytemnestra with its imposing façade is together with the Treasury of Atreus the most monumental tomb of that type.
  The tomb is named after Clytemnestra, the wife of king Agamemnon, mythical ruler of Mycenae and leader of the Greeks in the Trojan War. However, it has been also suggested by modern scholars that this might have been Agamemnon's tomb or even that the tomb was never occupied due to the destruction of Mycenae which occurred during that time.
context_section_description: The entrance to the tomb consists of a dromos with walls of ashlar in conglomerate. Similarly, the stomion is built from the same element. The exterior façade of the stomion is decorated with half-columns made of gypsum which were carefully carved with ornate capitals and vertical fluting. A large relieving triangle overlaps the door lintel. It was originally decorated by a colored relief sculpture. Through the lintel block a small drain is cut in the rock, lined with low rubble walls and roofed with small slabs. Above them two stones are set to take the direct pressure off the covering slabs. 
  The surface of the tomb was covered with coat of white plaster. The burial chamber has a diameter of 13.4 metres (44 ft). Most blocks are sawn rather than hammer-dressed. The tomb chamber is constructed throughout of ashlar conglomerate masonry.
  The Tomb of Clytemnestra shares several architectural features with that of Atreus such as the combination of conglomerate and limestone. However, the Tomb of Clytemnestra displays slightly more advanced technical features with rows of curved stones continuing around the structure at the same level of the lintel. This may indicate that the Tomb of Clytemnestra was a slightly later construction compared to the one of Atreus. 
  Architectural features of this specific tomb such as the semi-column were largely adopted by later classical monuments of the first millennium BC, both in the Greek and Latin world.
caption: The roof of the burial chamber.
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