The Long Walls of Athens
KALAMOS BOOKS
the city-state of Athens with its port city of Piraeus.
Construction began in 461 BC under Themistocles after his victory at
Salamis, possibly by Cimon, and completed under Pericles in 457 BC,
with the aim of making Athens an impregnable city and preventing its
being cut off from its harbor and from the rest of the world when
besieged by land.
This ensured that Athens would never be cut off from supplies as long
as it controlled the sea.
The two well-fortified Long Walls were 160 metres apart, 6000 metres
long and 20 metres high.
There were three harbors at the port of Piraeus at the time, for grain
ships, merchant ships and warships, and ensured that Athens could
receive supplies during the Peloponnesian War. There are three walls
in all, with a third wall running from Athens to the Bay of Phalerum
(Neo Faliro, today).
Substantial sections of the southern wall have been recently uncovered
at Neo Faliro and adjacent Moschato, during ongoing engineering work
on the electric railway between Kallithea and Moschato stations.
[photo: 3D representation of Kerameikos from ancientathens3d.com]
http://www.ana-mpa.gr/anaweb/user/showplain?maindoc=8400264&maindocimg=8400263&service=144
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June Samaras
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