Glossary Architecture and settlements

Megaron

A large rectangular hall entered through a porch, with a central hearth; the main room of a Mycenaean palace.

The term comes from Mycenaean Greece, where the megaron was the throne room of the palace. Cyprus has no Mycenaean-style palaces, but writers use 'megaron-like' for Late Bronze Age halls with central hearths, as at Enkomi, and for the fifth-century BCE hall of the palace at Vouni. The label describes a plan. It does not by itself show that Aegean settlers built the hall.

  • Ashlar

    Masonry of stone blocks cut and dressed square, laid in regular courses with fine joints.

  • Acropolis

    The high, often fortified part of an ancient city, holding its main temples or palace; from the Greek for 'upper city'.

Where it appears