The archaeological sites of Mycenae and Tiryns are the imposing ruins of the two greatest cities of the Mycenaean civilization. That civilization, which dominated the eastern Mediterranean world from the 15th to the 12th century B.C., laid the foundations of classical Greek culture and set the course of its development. The two cities of Mycenae and Tiryns are indissolubly linked to the Homeric epics, the Iliad and the Odyssey, which have influenced European art and literature for more than three millennia.