Athens is a sprawling city in southeastern Greece. It is surrounded by a semicircle of mountains. The city has bequeathed to the world its wealth of ancient monuments, buildings and artworks of Ancient Greece. Its population is about 4 million.
Athens is named after the Greek goddess Athena. As per Greek mythology, the ruler of the gods, Zeus, in order to choose a patron for the city staged a contest between Athena and Poseidon. According to one version, Athena gifted to the city an olive tree and Poseidon gifted a horse. The people accepted Athena's gift as being more useful to humanity and thus dedicated their city to her.
Athens was a city-state and governed by Council of Elders and included the surrounding territory as well as the seaport of Piraeus. The Persian Empire wanted to conquer Athens, resulting in the Persian Wars which lasted 11 years (490-479 BC) in which the Athenian defeated the Persians in the Battle of Salamis and finally in the Battle of Plataea in 479 BC. The Athenian leader Themistocles now began to restore the city. He built circuit walls around Athens and Piraeus and also began the construction of the Long Walls connecting Athens and Piraeus. His successor Pericles continued his work about 450 BC.
Pericles period in office is known as the Golden Age of Athens. Pericles built at the Acropolis the Parthenon, the temple of Nike, the Erechtheum, the Propylaea (a marble gateway which provides the entrance to the Acropolis) and completed the Long Walls of Piraeus. He also developed the agora (marketplace) where goods from the known world were displayed.
During this period, Athens also witnessed as exemplary cultural flowering. Great plays incorporating tragedy and comedy were staged in the Theater of Dionysus, below the Acropolis. Some of the remarkable personalities of the time were; Ictinus and Callicrates (architects); Alcamenes and Phidias (sculptors); Apollodorus and Polygnotus (painters); Herodotus and Thucydides (historians); Aeschylus, Aristophanes, Euripides and Sophocles (dramatists).
Seeing that Athens had a brilliant culture and improving as a democratic city-state, its archrival Sparta started the destructive Peloponnesian War in 431 BC. After severe loses, Athens surrendered in 404 BC. The decline of the city had commenced even though it had influential philosophers Plato and Aristotle.
Philip II (of Macedonia) defeated the Athenians at the Battle of Chaeronea in 338 BC and became the ruler of Greece. The Roman Empire conquered Athens with most of Greece in 146 BC. For the next six centuries Athens still remained a center of learning for the Greeks and the Romans. In 476 AD the western Roman Empire fell and the Byzantine Empire succeeded the eastern Roman Empire (of which Greece was a part of it). The Byzantine emperor stayed in Constantinople (present day Istanbul) and very rarely visited Athens and the city declined culturally.
The Ottoman Empire captured Constantinople in 1453 and with the conquest of the Balkan Peninsula, it gained control of Athens in 1458. By the end of 18th century, national sentiments of the Greek began to erupt and on 25th March 1821 (now Greek Independence Day) they launched a war for independence against the Ottoman rule. The Great Powers (Britain, France and Russia) tried to mediate, but were rebuffed and they defeated the Ottoman Empire in 1828. Peace negotiation began in 1829 in London and independence was declared and recognized. In 1932 Greek monarchy was established.
(By a referendum the monarchy was rejected by the Greeks on 8th Dec 1974).
German architect Eduard Schhaubert during the reign of King Otto (1832-1862) rebuilt Athens. Athens was mainly a tourist spot noted for its ancient monuments.
On 6th April 1896 King George I in the Panathenaic Stadium, which was used during the ancient festival of Panathenaea for athletic competitions and was restored for the Olympics, declared the first modern Olympics open in Athens. It was a great success with the Greek shepherd, Spiridon Louis wining the marathon. Greece won the maximum number of positions (10 first position, 17 second position and 19 third position); 46 in all. In the Ist Olympiad the athlete coming first got a silver medal, a crown of olive branches and a diploma; the athlete coming second got a bronze medal, a crown of laurel and a diploma; and the athlete coming third got nothing.
Among the five cities; Athens, Buenos Aires, Cape Town, Rome and Stockholm; the International Olympic Committee in 1997 chose Athens to host the XXVIII Olympiad at Athens in 2004. The Athenians welcomed this open heartedly and see it as an opportunity to expand and modernize their city's infrastructure and to highlight its cultural riches.
Athens is full of ancient archaeological sites that will remind you of the glory of the Ancient Greece. Acropolis is one of the most important sightseeing feature. It is a flat topped hill adorned with the ruins of ancient temples, monuments and works of art, all dating back to the 5th century BC. The southern slope includes the ruins of Theatre of Dionysus. The ancient marketplace, agora, is below the Acropolis.
Kerameikos contains the ruins of the official gateways to ancient Athens as well as Athens's ancient cemetery. Near the Kerameikos is the ruins of the famous Plato's Academy, where Plato the philosopher, taught his followers.
The city also has the Olympieion sanctuary which has the ruins of temples dedicated to the gods.
Ruins of the Roman era include the Hadrian's Library, Hadrian's Arch, Roman agora and the Tower of the Winds, octagonal in shape, which served as a sundial.
Survivors of the Byzantine Empire are a few medieval churches, namely, Church of Panaghia and the Church of Aghioi Theodoroi.
Lycabettus Hill, the highest point in the city is another popular sightseeing spot. To see the oldest residential area of Athens with its narrow winding streets, one should go to Plaka. The National Archaeological Museum has the world's greatest collection of ancient Greek artifacts.
Athens is a city definitely worth a visit.
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