Lerna

Just beyond the village of Myli on the Trípoli road can be seen (on the left, close to the sea) the roofed-over American excavations of Lerna, a site occupied from neolithic times onwards. Here a double line of defensive walls of the early Helladic period was found built over a neolithic dwelling of the fourth millennium B.C. In the center of the site is an early Helladic palace, known as the "House of the Tiles", which was built about 2200 B.C. and burned down about 200 years later. Measuring 79ft/24m by 36ft/11m, it is the largest building of the pre-Greek period in Greece. After its destruction it was buried under a mound of earth enclosed by a large circle of stones. Two Mycenaean shaft graves provide evidence of Mycenaean occupation of the site about 1600 B.C. Immediately north of the site is the Spring of the Hydra, which is associated with one of the labors of Herakles.