The Dorians, were one of the three main groups of Helenes (Greeks) who invaded the Land of Greece from the north in the 12th and 11th centuries BC. They first settled in Sparta, Argolis, and Corinth in the Peloponnese and then invaded Crete, the Dodecanese, the southwest corner of Asia Minor, Sicily, and southern Italy. Their language was a dialect of the Greek, called Doric. Their invasion signed the end of the Mycenaean civilization that was dominating the Land of Greece in those remote times.