Page:History of Art in Primitive Greece - Mycenian Art Vol 1.djvu/298

 TiRVNS. 273 pectedly revealed a minor entrance on the west side of the citadel. Here, in front of the rectangular wall surrounding the esplanade, where rose the palace, is a semi-circular structure. M. Dorpfeld, in order to enable the student to grasp the arrangement of this portion of the rampart and the foot-path or passage, has given a transverse section (Fig. 79) and a per- spective view of it (Fig. 80). The massive wall, seven metres fifty centimetres thick, is entered from the outside by a gate three metres broad (t), rising to a pointed arch, like that of the passage and chambers on the south and east sides. This postern leads to a staircase, the first steps of which are cut in the solid rock, and the next, up to the twentieth step, wind through an artificial breach in the rock, after which they lean against the rampart. From the sixty-fifth step the stairs are completely destroyed ; farther on a piece of the substructure which supported them has been preserved to the distance of twenty-one English feet. This section, though much injured, is sufficiently preserved to show the terminating- point of the ramp. The staircase opened into the court behind the palace. VOL. I. T