The Acropolis of Athens is an ancient citadel located on a rocky outcrop above the city of Athens, Greece, and contains the remains of several ancient buildings of great architectural and historical significance, the most famous being the Parthenon. The word Acropolis is from the Greek words ἄκρον and πόλις. The term acropolis is generic and there are many other acropoleis in Greece. During ancient times the Acropolis of Athens was also more properly known as Cecropia, after the legendary serpent-man Cecrops, the supposed first Athenian king.
Eleusinion, also called the City Eleusinion was a sanctuary on the lower part of the north slope of the Acropolis in Athens, Greece, dedicated to Demeter and Kore (Persephone). It was the central hub of Eleusinian Mysteries within Athens and the starting point for the annual procession to Eleusis, in the northwest of Attica. Religious activity is attested in the area from the 7th century BC and construction took place throughout late Archaic, Classical, Hellenistic, and Roman periods. The sanctuary was enclosed within the new city walls built after the Herulian sack of Athens in AD 267 and it remained in use until the late fourth century AD.
Piraeus is a port city within the Athens urban area, in the Attica region of Greece. It is located eight kilometres (5 mi) southwest of Athens city centre along the east coast of the Saronic Gulf in the Athens Riviera.
Athens is one of the oldest named cities in the world, having been continuously inhabited for perhaps 5,000 years. 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.
The Stoa of Attalos was a stoa in the Agora of Athens, Greece. It was built by and named after King Attalos II of Pergamon, who ruled between 159 BC and 138 BC. The building was reconstructed from 1952 to 1956 by the American School of Classical Studies at Athens and currently houses the Museum of the Ancient Agora.
Orchomenus, the setting for many early Greek myths, is best known today as a rich archaeological site in Boeotia, Greece, that was inhabited from the Neolithic through the Hellenistic periods. It is often referred to as "Minyan Orchomenus", to distinguish it from a later city of the same name in Arcadia.
Although long walls were built at several locations in ancient Greece, notably Corinth and Megara, the term Long Walls generally refers to the walls that connected Athens' main city to its ports at Piraeus and Phaleron.
Histria or Istros was founded as a Greek colony or polis on the western coast of the Black Sea near the mouth of the Danube whose banks are today about 70 km away. In antiquity, it also bore the names Istropolis, Istriopolis, and Histriopolis or simply Istros/Histros (Ἴστρος). It is near the modern town of Istria.
The city of Athens during the classical period of ancient Greece was the major urban centre of the notable polis (city-state) of the same name, located in Attica, Greece, leading the Delian League in the Peloponnesian War against Sparta and the Peloponnesian League. Athenian democracy was established in 508 BC under Cleisthenes following the tyranny of Isagoras. This system remained remarkably stable, and with a few brief interruptions, it remained in place for 180 years, until 322 BC. The peak of Athenian hegemony was achieved in the 440s to 430s BC, known as the Age of Pericles.
Corinth was a city-state (polis) on the Isthmus of Corinth, the narrow stretch of land that joins the Peloponnese peninsula to the mainland of Greece, roughly halfway between Athens and Sparta. The modern city of Corinth is located approximately 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) northeast of the ancient ruins. Since 1896, systematic archaeological investigations of the Corinth Excavations by the American School of Classical Studies at Athens have revealed large parts of the ancient city, and recent excavations conducted by the Greek Ministry of Culture have brought to light important new facets of antiquity.
The Stoa of Eumenes was a Hellenistic colonnade built on the South slope of the Acropolis, Athens and which lay between the Theater of Dionysus and the Odeon of Herodes Atticus The gallery was donated to the city of Athens by the king of Pergamon, Eumenes II, around 160 BC. Vitruvius makes reference to the building when speaking about the purpose of stoai erected near theatres that served as a refuge for the spectators in inclement weather conditions or as stores for theatre props.
The Pelasgic wall or Pelasgian fortress or Enneapylon was a monument supposed to have been built by the Pelasgians, after levelling the summit of the rock on the Acropolis of Athens. Thucydides and Aristophanes call it "Pelargikon", "Stork wall or place". "Pelargikon" refers to the line of walls at the western foot of the Acropolis. During the time of Thucydides, the wall was said to have stood several meters high with a large, visible fragment at 6 m (20 ft) broad, located on to the south of the present Propylaia and close to the earlier gateway. Today, the beveling can be seen but the foundation of the wall lies below the level of the present hill.
The Dipylon was the main gate in the city wall of Classical Athens. Located in the modern suburb of Kerameikos, it led to the namesake ancient cemetery, and to the roads connecting Athens with the rest of Greece. The gate was of major ceremonial significance as the starting point of the procession of the Great Panathenaea, and accordingly it was a large, monumental structure, "the largest gate of the ancient world". Erected in 478 BC as part of Themistocles' fortification of Athens and rebuilt in the 300s BC, it remained standing and in use until the 3rd century AD.
The Themistoclean Wall, named after the Athenian statesman Themistocles, was built in Athens, Greece during the 5th century BC as a result of the Persian Wars and in the hopes of defending against further invasion.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to Athens:
The so-called Wall of Haseki was a city wall built around Athens by its Ottoman governor, Hadji Ali Haseki, in 1778. Initially intended to protect the city from attacks by Ottoman Muslim Albanian warbands, it became an instrument of Haseki's tyrannical rule over the city.
The Destruction of Athens, took place between 480 and 479 BCE, which Athens was captured and subsequently destroyed by the Achaemenid Empire. A prominent Greek city-state, it was attacked by the Persians in a two-phase offensive, amidst which the Persian king Xerxes I had issued an order calling for it to be torched. The Persian army commander Mardonius oversaw the razing of several structures of political and religious significance throughout the city, including the Acropolis, the Old Temple of Athena, and the Older Parthenon. A year later, the Greek coalition retook Athens and dealt a devastating defeat to the Persian army during the Battle of Plataea, killing Mardonius and setting the stage for the eventual expulsion of all Persian troops from Europe.
Heraclea at Latmus or Heraclea under Latmus, or simply Heraclea or Herakleia (Ἡράκλεια), also transliterated as Heracleia, was an ancient town situated at the western foot of Mount Latmus, on the border between Caria and Ionia in southwestern Asia Minor. The site, now occupied by the modern village of Kapıkırı, stands on the shore of Lake Bafa, which in antiquity was part of the Gulf of Latmus before it was silted up by deposits from the river Maeander. Substantial remains of the city and its fortifications still survive.
The Propylaia is the classical Greek Doric building complex that functioned as the monumental ceremonial gateway to the Acropolis of Athens. Built between 437 and 432 BC as a part of the Periklean Building Program, it was the last in a series of gatehouses built on the citadel. Its architect was Mnesikles, his only known building. It is evident from traces left on the extant building that the plan for the Propylaia evolved considerably during its construction, and that the project was ultimately abandoned in an unfinished state.
The Beulé Gate is a fortified gate, constructed in the Roman period, leading to the Propylaia of the Acropolis of Athens. It was constructed almost entirely from repurposed materials taken from the Choragic Monument of Nikias, a monument built in the fourth century BCE and demolished between the second and fourth centuries CE. The dedicatory inscription from Nikias's monument is still visible in the entablature of the Beulé Gate.
