Megalithic prehistoric PALEOKASTRO, AGIOS ADRIANOS, ARGOLIS, GREECE
249Megalithic blocks, trapezoidal passage, cyclopean walls. At the summit of the rocky hill, known as 'Paliokastro' or 'Hadrian's Castle', east of the village of Agios Adrianos, is a small fort that was built at the end of the 13th century BC. The fort was built with the grey local limestone using the polygonal masonry technique. It consists of a large curtain wall, 50m x 26m, and a fort at the highest point of the hill. In the southwest corner of the enclosure, there is a trapezoidal tank, 3.15 m deep, whose interior is coated with plaster. The square fort, whose sides measure 9.20 m, has survived to a height of 3 floors. On the west side, where the 0.95 m wide entrance gate is located, a 2.10 m high monolithic lintel has survived.
The fort has not been systematically studied. A small area on the lower southern slopes was excavated in 1890 by the Argos high school headmaster, I. Kofiniotis, with funding from the Archaeological Society.
The construction belongs to a network of forts from the Hellenistic period, which controlled the land route that connected the city of Argos with Epidaurus.