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Other legends tell of a race of giants, the Cyclops, who moved huge stones and gave the name cyclopean to the large-stone masonry seen in Mycenaean citadels and tombs. By about 1600 bce, members of the elite class on the mainland had begun building large aboveground burial places referred to as tholos tombs. More than 100 have been found on mainland Greece, nine of them in the vicinity of Mycenae. Possibly the most impressive is the so-called “Treasury of Atreus,” built around 1300–1200 bce (fig. 5–9). 5–9 Cutaway Drawing of Tholos Tomb (the so-called Treasury of Atreus), Mycenae, Greece. c. 1300–1200 bce. An uncovered, walled passageway about 114 feet long and 20 feet wide led to the door of a conical structure, the beehive tomb. The spacious circular main chamber—47½ feet in diameter and 43 feet high—is formed by a corbeled vault: a stone ceiling built up in regular courses (layers) of dressed stone in overlapping and ever-decreasing rings carefully calculated to meet at the peak in a single capstone (topmost stone that joins the sides and completes a structure) (fig. 5–10). Like Neolithic passage graves (see fig. 1–12), the stone structure was covered by earth to form an artificial mound. 5–10 Corbeled Vault Interior of tholos tomb (the so-called Treasury of Atreus), Mycenae, Greece. Limestone, height of vault approx. 43′ (13 m), diameter 47′ 6″ (14.48 m). For over a thousand years after it was constructed, this vast vaulted chamber remained the largest unobstructed interior space built in Europe. It was exceeded in size only by the Roman Pantheon (see fig. 6–27), built 110–128 bce. 5–11 Reconstruction Drawing of the Citadel at Mycenae Greece. Occupied c. 1600–1200 bce (walls built c. 1340–1200 bce). Note the citadel’s hilltop position and fortified ring wall. The Lion Gate (see fig. 5–12) is at the lower left, approached by a path flanked by wall sections. Grave Circle A is at the lower center.