A fortified Greek hilltop city with a palace and lavish royal tombs in the Peloponnese, occupied from the 16th to 12th centuries BC. Its most famous features are the famous Lion Gate and the "Treasury of Atreus", actually a magnificent tholos tomb. Mycenae was excavated in the 19th century by the German archeologist, Heinrich Schliemann, and many spectacular artifacts, including gold death masks, were discovered.