Athens

The city of Athens was the birthplace of Western civilization and is still one of Europe's great cities. In ancient times it was the most important Greek city-state. Today it is the capital and chief center of commerce and industry of Greece. The city attracts a large number of tourists each year to visit its historic sites that date to ancient times.

The Erechtheum, with its caryatids--or marble female figures--supporting the roof, and the Temple of Athena Nike were also built on the Acropolis during the same period. This collection of temples was approached through the Propylaea, a large entrance building. The Theater of Dionysus, built in the 5th century BC at the southern base of the Acropolis, was the city's drama center. The city was connected with the port of Piraeus by the parallel Long Walls, which formed a corridor 550 feet (170 meters) wide.

After Athens lost the Peloponnesian War in 404 BC its place as the premier city-state in Greece was also lost, and the city went into a decline that lasted until the period of Roman control three centuries later. Although the Romans sacked Athens and pulled down the Long Walls in 88 BC, they later built many magnificent buildings. The emperor Hadrian, in particular, completed a huge Temple of Olympian Zeus, built a library and a gymnasium, erected a large arch, and constructed an aqueduct that still serves the city.
Herodes Atticus built the Odeum, a theater that has been restored and is still in use. The Romans had their own Agora, which contained the Tower of the Winds, one of the earliest weather observatories. At the end of the Roman period, the city began to decay. Several temples were turned into Christian churches during the Byzantine period and after the city fell to the Crusaders in 1204. When the Turks occupied Athens in 1456 and began an almost 400-year rule they turned the Parthenon into a mosque and occupied other classical buildings.

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