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Mar 10, 2021 · City streets, fortification walls, and gates were key elements of Athenian topography that structured urban space throughout the history of the city, directing circulation both under urgent circumstances and in everyday life.
- Leda Costaki, Anna Maria Theocharaki
- 2021
The City Walls of Athens were a series of fortifications built to protect the ancient city and its inhabitants from external threats. Originating from the Mycenaean period and evolving through the classical era, these walls reflected the military and political significance of Athens in the Mediterranean world.
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The city of Athens lies in the plain of Attica, the large peninsula that forms the southernmost tip of the Greek mainland, jutting out into the Aegean Sea. Being sheltered on all sides by mountains, the city has a pleasant climate with hot and dry summers and mild winters. Though a few miles from the sea, it is well-connected to its busy harbour, P...
Most visitors to Athens arrive by sea. Athens' port, Piraeus, has much grown over recent decades to become a bustling international town that is well worth a visit in its own right (see below). Here the visitor can change foreign currency into Athenian silver coins. The road to Athens is a busy thoroughfare, and visitors will have to fight their wa...
As a city governed by the people, Athens lacks the palaces of rulers that you find in many other countries and the houses of its citizens are generally simple. However, the city is rightly famous for its splendid temples, statues and public buildings, which few other cities in Greece can match. The undisputed jewel in the city's crown, and the one ...
With goods from across the Mediterranean world on offer, it is difficult to choose what to bring home from Athens. Popular are local specialities, such as Attic honey or olive oil, or imported spices such as North African silphium. Nor can one go wrong with a bottle of perfume, exotic imports from Egypt such as cinnamon scent, or the Athenian Panat...
No other city in Greece has as much to offer in terms of entertainment and comforts of life. The best way to enjoy Athens is to visit during a major religious festival, when the whole city comes together to celebrate, and spectacles and competitions are staged that have their equal in few other corners of the known world. With some religious festiv...
Both the city and its port, Piraeus, offer lodgings for travellers at inns or taverns. For most tourists, Athens will be the first choice, though for those with business to conduct in shipping or sea trade, Piraeus will also be a good option. For those arriving from a city or country that has an honorary consul, a proxenos, in town, he should be th...
Athenians love to eat well, and travellers will not go hungry. Across town a wide range of establishments, from carts selling drink to well-regarded taverns such as the 'Bald Man' kept by Kallias and Thraitta, serve wine and food and are much frequented by locals. In terms of food there is something to suit every taste and pocket. Visitors will be ...
Athenians welcome visitors, and with many of the city's residents and slaves coming from abroad, plus numerous passing traders and diplomats, locals are well used to (and generally tolerant of) even the strangest foreign customs. Nonetheless, Athenians are also proud and protective of their own privileges, and so some events and spaces, including s...
Situated in southern Europe, Athens became the leading city of ancient Greece in the first millennium BC, and its cultural achievements during the 5th century BC laid the foundations of Western civilization.
Map of ancient Athens showing the Acropolis in middle, the Agora to the northwest, and the city walls. Athens was in Attica, about 30 stadia from the sea, on the southwest slope of Mount Lycabettus, between the small rivers Cephissus to the west, Ilissos to the south, and the Eridanos to the north, the latter of which flowed through the town ...
The walls were about 6 km (3.7 mi) in length. [2] They were initially constructed in the mid-5th century BC, and destroyed by the Spartans in 403 BC after Athens' defeat in the Peloponnesian War. They were rebuilt with Persian support during the Corinthian War in 395–391 BC. The Long Walls were a key element of Athenian military strategy ...
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6 days ago · Like Corinth but unlike Thebes (the greatest city of Classical Boeotia), Athens had a splendid acropolis (citadel) that had its own water supply, a natural advantage making for early political centralization. And Athens was protected by four mountain systems offering a first line of defense.
