Cyclopean masonry

A lot of people wonder how the ancient civilizations could produce the huge buildings that we can see still today. Actually, even the ancients them self wondered that from time to time.


Cyclopean masonry from Tiryns. Compare the size to the man in the picture.

"The wall [at Tiryns], which is the only part of the ruins still remaining, is a work of the Cyclopes made of unwrought stones, each stone being so big that a pair of mules could not move the smallest from its place to the slightest degree."

Pausanias Description of Greece 2.25.1


"There still remain, however, parts of the city wall, including the gate [The lion gate at Mycenae?], upon which stand lions. These, too, are said to be the work of the Cyclopes, who made for Proetus the wall at Tiryns."

Pausanias Description of Greece 2.16.5

Translated by W.H.S. Jones and H.A. Ormerod