A palace and town of the Mycenaeans, traditionally ruled by Nestor, and overlooking Navarino Bay on the west coast of the Peloponnese in Greece. It is perhaps the best preserved of all mainland palaces, built in the 14th century BC. A megaron with frescoed walls and painted floor opened on to a courtyard, around which were the domestic quarters, storerooms, guard chamber, and the archives room. The 1200 tablets in the archive were baked by the fire which destroyed the palace in the 13th century BC and have been of enormous value in deciphering the Linear B script. The tablets indicate that the ruler of Pylos exercised control over much of Messenia.