The pyramid of Elliniko

At the southwestern edge of the Argolic plain, near the sources of the Erasinos River, the famous Pyramid of Hellenikon has stood imposingly for thousands of years. This monument, located in the modern-day village of the same name, lies along a road that in antiquity connected Argos to Tegea. It is built from the region's hard gray limestone.

Various theories have been proposed regarding the possible use of the pyramid, the most prevalent of which suggest it was either a tumulus (burial mound) or a fortified structure. Although archaeological studies have not confirmed its use for burials, the traveler Pausanias, as well as the Argives of his time, considered it a funerary monument. According to the Asia Minor traveler, the pyramid was a polyandreion (mass grave) for the Argives who defeated the Spartans in a battle near Hysiae in 669 BC. As he writes in Corinthiaca (24.7):

"Returning to the road to Tegea, to the right of the area known as Trochos, are the Kenchreai. No one knows for certain why the place was named so, unless it took its name from Kenchrias, the son of Peirene. Here are also the polyandreia for the Argives who defeated the Lacedaemonians in battle near Hysiae. From what I learned, this war took place when Peisistratus was archon of Athens, in the fourth year of the 27th Olympiad, in which the Athenian Euribotos won the stadion race."