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Archaeological
sites
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Home to over 4 million inhabitants, this centuries
old city has much to offer the visitor. The Acropolis
is the most important archaeological site in Greece
dedicated to the gods Poseidon and Athina. The
Acropolis area includes the ruins of the theatre
of Dionysos, where the tragedies of Aeschylus,
Sophocles, Euripides and the comedies of Aristophanis,
were performed, as well as the partially restored
Odeon of Herodus Atticus where concerts and theatrical
performances are held to this day during the summer
period. The Acropolis features its own museum
considered to be the finest in the world.
Other important archaeological sites to visit
in the Athens area include the Ancient agora,
the Thision, the Stoa of Attalos, the Areos Pagos,
the Hill of Filopappos, the Pnika, the Olumpieion,
the Keramikos cemetery, the Arch of Andrianos
and many more. No visitor to Greece can afford
to miss the Temple of Poseidon in Sounion, just
a short drive along the scenic coastline south
east of Athens.
History and Mythology
Athens the immortal city
of civilization and Democracy
The cultural legacy of ancient Athens to the world
is incalculable. To a great extent the references
to the Greek heritage that abound in the culture
of Western Europe are to Athenian civilization.
Athens, named after its patron goddess Athena,
was inhabited in the Bronze Age. Its citizens
later proudly claimed that their ancestors had
lived in the city even before the settlements
of Attica were molded into a single state.
Athens, the oldest inhabited city in the world,
the cradle of democracy and Western civilization
as we know it today, was begun as a small fortified
village built on top of the Acropolis rock as
far back as 3.000 years B.C.
Its first name was Kekropia deriving from its mythical
founder and first King Kekropas until such time
as the competition between the god Poseidon and
the goddess Athena, as to who would become protector
of the young and rising city, was won by Athena,
who offered the gift of the olive tree and gave
the city her name.
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The city of Athens
grew from a small fortified habitation on top of the Acropolis
rock into one of the most powerful city -states of the
ancient world and produced some of the most famous philosophers,
artists and writers, their names world famous through
the history of the human race. There are few who don't
know the names of Socrates, Plato, Sophocles, Euripides,
Aristophanes, Phidias and many, many more. Through the
centuries, Athens absorbed the near-by smaller towns,
finally dominating the whole of Attica, creating one of
the most powerful alliances in ancient Greece. In time,
Athens abolished royalty and became the first democracy
in the world, a fact that helped it to grow even more,
becoming so powerful that was able to fight off foreign
invaders like the ancient Persians and with the assistance
of other Greek cities, to win famous battles such as those
of Marathon and Salamis, a preamble to the final conquest
of Persia by one of the world's greatest soldiers and
statesmen, Alexander the Great.
According to Greek mythology, Poseidon and Athena compete
to become protectors and deities of the city. They challenge
each other and the prize for the winner was the city of
Athens. According to the myth, an olive tree sprung from
the ground at the touch of Athena's spear. Whilst Poseidon
summoned forth a seawater spring. Consequently, the olive
tree won over the seawater spring!
The earliest settlement, dating from before 3000 BC, was
situated on the summit of the Acropolis, protected on
all sides except the west by its steep slopes. Named for
the city's patron goddess, Athena, the ancient city developed
mainly to the north of this hill, around the Agora, or
marketplace. Parallel walls, called the Long Walls, made
a protected thoroughfare between the city and its port
of Piraeus. The most glorious period in the city's history
was the 5th century BC, when it was the cultural and artistic
center of the classical world.
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Early History
According to tradition, Athens was governed until c.1000
B.C. by Ionian kings, who had gained suzerainty over all
Attica. After the Ionian kings Athens was rigidly governed
by its aristocrats, until Solon began to enact liberal
reforms in 594 B.C. Solon abolished serfdom, modified
the harsh laws and altered the economy and constitution
to give power to all the propertied classes, thus establishing
a limited democracy. His economic reforms were largely
retained when Athens came under (560-511 B.C.) the rule
of the tyrant Pisistratus and his sons Hippias and Hipparchus.
During this period the city's economy boomed and its culture
flourished. Building on the system of Solon, Cleisthenes
then established (c.506 B.C.) a democracy for the freemen
of Athens, and the city remained a democracy during most
of the years of its greatness.
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A Great City-State
The Persian Wars (500-449 B.C.) made Athens the strongest
Greek city-state. Much smaller and less powerful than
Sparta at the start of the wars, Athens was more active
and more effective in the fighting against Persia. The
Athenian heroes Miltiades, Themistocles, and Cimon were
largely responsible for building the city's strength.
In 490 B.C. the Greek army defeated Persia at Marathon.
A great Athenian fleet won a major victory over the Persians
off the island of Salamis (480 B.C.). The powerful fleet
also enabled Athens to gain hegemony in the Delian League,
which was created in 478-477 B.C. through the confederation
of many city-states; in succeeding years the league was
transformed into an empire headed by Athens. The city
arranged peace with Persia in 449 B.C. and with its chief
rival, Sparta, in 445 B.C., but warfare with smaller Greek
cities continued.
During the time of Pericles (443-429 B.C.) Athens reached
the height of its cultural and imperial achievement; Socrates
and the dramatists Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides
were active. The incomparable Parthenon was built, and
sculpture and painting flourished. Athens became a center
of intellectual life. However, the rivalry with Sparta
had not ended, and in 431 B.C. the "Peloponnesian War"
between Sparta and Athens began.
The war went badly for Athens from the start. The Long
Walls built to protect the city and its port of Piraeus
saved the city itself as long as the fleet was paramount,
but the allies of Athens fell away and the land empire
Pericles had tried to build already had crumbled before
his death in 429 B.C. The war dragged on under the leadership
of Cleon and continued even after the collapse of the
expedition against Sicily, urged (415 B.C.) by Alcibiades.
The Peloponnesian War finally ended in 404 B.C. with Athens
completely humbled, its population cut in half, and its
fleet reduced to a dozen ships.
Under the dictates of Sparta, Athens was compelled to
tear down the Long Walls and to accept the government
of an oligarchy called the Thirty Tyrants. However, the
city recovered rapidly. In 403 B.C. the Thirty Tyrants
were overthrown by Thrasybulus, and by 376 B.C. Athens
again had a fleet, had rebuilt the Long Walls, had recreated
the Delian League, and had won a naval victory over Sparta.
Sparta also lost power as a result of its defeat (371
B.C.) by Thebes at Leuctra and, although Athens did not
again achieve hegemony over Greece, it did have a short
period of great prosperity and comfort.
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The Decline of Athens
The growth of Macedon's power under Philip II heralded
the demise of Athens as a major power. Despite the pleas
by Demosthenes to the citizens of Athens to stand up against
Macedon, Athens was decisively defeated by Philip at Chaeronea
in 338 B.C. The city did not dare dispute the mastery
of Philip's son and successor, Alexander the Great. After
his death Athens revolted (323-322 B.C.) against control
by Macedon, but the revolt was quashed, and Athens lost
its remaining dependencies and declined into a provincial
city. Its last bid for greatness (266-262 B.C.) was firmly
suppressed by Antigonus II, king of Macedon.
Through the troubled times of the Peloponnesian War and
the wars against Philip, Athenian achievements in philosophy,
drama, and art had continued. Aristophanes wrote comedies,
Plato taught at the Academy, Aristotle compiled an incredible
store of information, and Thucydides wrote a great history
of the Peloponnesian War. As the city's glory waned in
the 3d cent. B.C., its earlier contributions were spread
over the world in Hellenistic culture.
Athens became a minor ally of growing Rome, and a period
of stagnation was broken only when the city unwisely chose
to support Mithridates VI of Pontus against Rome. As a
result, Athens was sacked by the Roman general Sulla in
86 B.C. Nevertheless, Athens sent out many teachers to
Rome and retained a certain faded glory as a moderately
prosperous small city in the backwash of the empire. It
remained so until the time when the Eastern Empire began
to fall to the barbarians. Athens was captured in A.D.
395 by the Visigoths under Alaric I.
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From Byzantine to Ottoman Rule
Athens became a provincial capital of the Byzantine Empire
and a center of religious learning and devotion. Following
the creation (1204) of the Latin Empire of Constantinople,
Athens passed (1205) to Othon de la Roche, a French nobleman
from Franche-Comte, who was made megaskyr [great lord]
of Athens and Thebes. His nephew and successor, Guy I,
obtained the ducal title, and the duchy of Athens, under
Guy I and his successors, enjoyed great prosperity while
becoming thoroughly French in its institutions. In 1311
the duchy was captured by a band of Catalan soldier-adventurers
who offered (1312) the ducal title to King Frederick II
of Sicily, a member of the house of Aragon. Members of
the house of Aragon carried the title, but Athens was
in fact governed by the "Catalan Grand Company," which
also acquired (1318) the neighboring duchy of Neopatras.
The French feudal culture disappeared, and Athens sank
into insignificance and poverty, particularly after 1377,
when the succession was contested in civil war. Peter
IV of Aragon assumed sovereignty in 1381 but ruled from
Barcelona. On his initiative, the devastated duchy was
settled by Albanians. Athens again prospered briefly after
its conquest in 1388 by Nerio I Acciajuoli, lord of Corinth,
a Florentine noble. Under the Acciajuoli family's rule
numerous Florentine merchants established themselves in
Athens. However, the fall of the Acropolis to the Ottoman
Turks in 1458 marked the beginning of nearly four centuries
of Ottoman rule, and Athens once more declined. Venice,
which had held Athens from 1394 to 1402, recovered it
briefly from the Turks in 1466 and besieged it in 1687-88.
During the siege the Parthenon, used by the Turks as a
powder magazine, was largely blown up in a bombardment.
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Modern Athens
Modern Athens was constructed only after 1834, when it
became the capital of a newly independent Greece. Otto
I, first king of the Hellenes (1832-62), rebuilt much
of the city, and the first modern Olympic games were held
there in 1896. The population grew rapidly in the 1920s,
when Greek refugees arrived from Turkey. The city's inhabitants
suffered extreme hardships during the German occupation
(1941-44) in World War II, but the city escaped damage
in the war and in the country's civil troubles of 1944-50.
The 1950s and 60s brought unbridled expansion. Land clearance
for suburban building caused runoff and flooding, requiring
the modernization of the sewer system. The Mornos River
was dammed and a pipeline over 160 km long was built to
Athens, supplementing the inadequate water supply. The
development of a highway system facilitated the proliferation
of automobiles, resulting in increased air pollution.
This accelerated the deterioration of ancient buildings
and monuments, requiring preservation and conservation
programs as well as traffic bans in parts of the city.
The Ellinikon airport was modernized and enlarged to accommodate
increased tourism.
Modern Athens is a cosmopolitan city which offers the
foreign visitor unlimited possibilities for excursions,
sightseeing, night life - you name it, Athens has it.
Literally thousands of traditional eating places, tavernas,
with or without music but always good, inexpensive food
can be found in the city and its suburbs, along with hundreds
of restaurants of every style and nationality. Numerous
nightclubs vie for the visitor's attention with the uniquely.
Athenian type of open-air cinemas and theatres. All types
of shopping is available, from the famous Athens flea
market, Monastiraki, to the most sophisticated boutiques.
Thousands of bars, pubs, and snack - type eating places,
including the famous souvlaki stands, are to be found,
ready to service the needs of a great variety of customers.
Today's Athens, is a modern city, but it still has its
aura of ancient glory which becomes evident when one takes
an evening stroll in the old city.
Athens is a place to see and experience. It may not be what
it once was, but it still has a lot of unique experiences
to offer, especially to those ready, willing, and able to
understand and appreciate its unalterable beauty.
Athens is a great city of 5.000.000 people with its modern
boulevards and high ways as well as with its smaller suburban
streets its new Athens metro one of the best in the world
its new Athens airport (Eleftherios Venizelos) the newest
and one of the most modern in Europe ,and finally its new
stadiums ready to host the first Olympic games of the new
millennium in the country of there origin the country of
the Sun and the blue sky Greece.
The world knows Athens mainly from its history, its monuments
Acropolis and the Parthenon, its Philosophers like Socrates
and Plato, its great leaders like Pericles, its dramaturges
like Sophocles ,Aeschylus and Aristophanes and its great
sculptures like Phidias and Praksiteles ,but most of all
the world knows Athens for its greatest gift that gave to
humanity the Democracy and the freedom of thought and expression.
Athens has its own style and beauty. Athens its a city of
contrasts, being always a crossroad between the east and
the west has this unique atmosphere that no other European
city has . Brand new modern skyscrapers next to neoclassic
mansions, department stores and fancy boutiques next to
Byzantine churches and ancient monuments. Athens today its
a city which will satisfy even the most demanding visitor.
Athens is surrounded by the mountains Aigaleo to the west,
Parnes to the north, Pentelikon to the northeast, and Hymettus
to the east. Most are of limestone or marble, from which
the ancient buildings of the city (Parthenon,Propylaea)
were constructed. The plain on which the city lies contains
isolated limestone hills, including Lykavittos (Lycabettus),
which rises 339 m above the sea, and the flat-topped Acropolis,
156 m high, around which the city grew.
Athens has a typical Mediterranean climate, with hot, dry
summers and mild winters. Rainfall is slight.
The city is noteworthy for its fine archaeological collections,
especially those contained in the National Archeological
Museum and the Acropolis Museum. The city's most important
cultural remains, however, are its numerous architectural
monuments, dating from ancient times and later periods.
Foremost among these is the Acropolis, the ancient fortified
hill on which stand the Erechtheum, Parthenon, and Propylaea,
all of the 5th century BC. To the south of the Acropolis
are the Theater of Dionysus and the Odeon of Herodes Atticus,
and to the west, the Areopagus (council chamber) in which
St. Paul spoke. The agora is partially excavated. The stoa,
or colonnaded walk, of Attalos, which is located there,
has been reconstructed and now holds a sizable collection
of Greek antiquities all connected with the Athenian Democracy.
The city also contains a number of fine Orthodox churches
of the Byzantine period.
Enjoy Athens, the city of the Olympics games of
2004.
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