Tiryns [key], ancient city of Greece, in the NE Peloponnesus, 2.5 mi (4 km) N of Nauplia (now Návplion) and near Argos. The site seems to have been inhabited since the 3d millennium b.c. It was a city of splendor from c.1600 to c.1100 b.c. Excavations begun by Heinrich Schliemann and Wilhelm Dörpfeld in 1884–85 revealed not only extensive pre-Homeric palaces of the Mycenaean period but also remains going far back in prehistory. The old city was prominent in Greek legend.
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