A wall surrounds Kadmeia, the acropolis of Thebes, and a second the lower city. In the wall around Kadmeia, there were seven gates: Elektrai, Homoloides, Proitides, Ogygiai, Borraiai, Neistai, Hypsistai, Onkaiai. Of these, the Elektrai gates, from where the road to Athens began, have been discovered, along with a section of the Mycenaean wall at what would have been position of the Protides gates during the Classical period. The other gates were positioned according to the exits from the city to various points in Boeotia.
On the basis of archaeological finds, the perimeter of the Mycenaean enclosure is drawn across the whole of the eastern side of Thebes, from the Elektrai to the Protides gates, with complete confidence and accuracy. This side was provided with at least three entrances during all historical periods, which were positioned at what are still the only approaches to the city from this direction.
Protides Gates
On arriving at the Mycenaean acropolis, one would have to pass through one of gates of the Kadmeia’s defences, which were built around the brow of the hill. Only a few sections of the Mycenaean defences have survived to the present day. From these, it is concluded that they had a stable stone skeleton made of large stone blocks following the cyclopean system, and a superstructure built of bricks.
The most important remnant of the Mycenaean wall at Kadmeia was discovered in 1915 and later in 1986, on the eastern side of the city, in the position where it is generally believed the Protides gates were located, at the end of the road that began in the east of Boeotia and crossed the cemetery at Kastellion. This area was quite level and it is natural that it was always one of the main entrances to the fortified hill.
The wall is around 4.5m thick and has two façades built with stone blocks, while its interior is filled with smaller stones. A little further to the north from this point, and according to the observations of Antonios Keramopoulos, there must have been a projection in the Mycenaean wall that corresponded to an entry tower or bastion.
Elektrai Gates
These were the main gates of ancient Thebes, as it was through them that the road coming from Athens via Plataea passed. The ruins seen today are from the Hellenistic period. The gates had a large circular tower at each side, between which the road to Thebes passed, as it does today. They got their name from Elektra, the daughter of Atlantas, whom various mythologies present as the mother-in-law of Kadmos, the mother of Harmonia by Zeus. According to myth, the epic battle between Eteoklis and Polyneikis took place outside the Elektrai gates.
The Sanctuary of Heracles
On reaching the city of Thebes by the main road from Plataea, and before entering the Elektrai the gates at the south-eastern edge of Kadmeia, one would first meet the sanctuary of Heracles on the left. Pindaros and Pausanias’s descriptions of this are valuable, and speak of the worship here of Heracles and the hero’s children by Megara, daughter of Kreon. The sanctuary was excavated recently, underneath the modern city, south of the Elektrai gates. Sections of an arcade have been found, as well as an enclosure, which delineated a cenotaph, in which most likely offerings and sacrifices to the dead were made in honour of Megara’s children. Below Polyneikous Street, there have also been found two monolithic altars, as well as an altar of ash, with thick successive layers of burning, which included large quantities of burned bone and Geometric and Archaic pottery (8th-5th century BC).
