The city of Athens, capital of modern Greece, has had different sets of city walls from the Bronze Age to the early 19th century. The city walls of Athens include:

Contents

• Gates
• References
• Sources

• the Mycenaean Cyclopean fortifications of the Acropolis of Athens
• the Pelasgic wall at the foot of the Acropolis
• the so-called "Archaic Wall", whose existence and course are debated by scholars ^[1]
• the Themistoclean Wall, built in 479 BC, the main city wall during Antiquity, restored and rebuilt several times (under Conon, Demosthenes, Demetrios Poliorketes, etc.)
• the Long Walls, built in the 460s and 440s BC, connecting Athens with its ports at Piraeus and Phaleron
• the Protocheisma, a second wall built in front of the Themistoclean Wall in 338 BC as an extra defence against the Macedonians
• the Diateichisma , built in the 280s BC as a second line of defence against Macedonian-held Piraeus
• the Valerian Wall, built in c. 260 AD, partly along the lines of older walls, partly as a new fortification, to protect the city against barbarian attacks
• the Herulian (or Post-Herulian) ^[2] Wall, a much smaller circuit built in c. 280 AD, enclosing the centre of the ancient city following its sack by the Heruli in 267 AD
• the Rizokastro , built in the 13th century around the Acropolis ^[3]
• the Wall of Haseki, constructed in 1778 by the Ottoman governor of Athens, Hadji Ali Haseki

Gates

• Dipylon
• Sacred Gate

References

Sources

• Judeich, Walther (1931). Topographie von Athen (in German) (2nd ed.). Munich: Beck.
• Maier, Franz Georg (1959-1961). Griechische Mauerbauinschriften [Greek building inscriptions of city walls]. 2 volumes. Vestigia, vol. 1/2. Heidelberg: Quelle & Meyer (on Athens especially volume 1, pp. 15-84).
• Rous, Sarah A. (2019). Reset in Stone: Memory and Reuse in Ancient Athens. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press. pp. 57–61. ISBN   978-0-299-32280-9 . Retrieved 2022-06-10.
• Papadopoulos, J. K. (2008). "The Archaic Walls of Athens. Reality or Myth?" (PDF). Opuscula. Annual of the Swedish Institutes at Athens and Rome. 1: 31–46. doi:10.30549/opathrom-01-03. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2017-12-28. Retrieved 2017-12-28.
• Theocharaki, Anna Maria (2011). "The Ancient Circuit Wall of Athens: Its Changing Course and the Phases of Construction". Hesperia: The Journal of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens. 80 (1): 71–156. doi:10.2972/hesp.80.1.0071. JSTOR   10.2972/hesp.80.1.0071.
• Theocharaki, Anna Maria (2019). The Ancient Circuit Wall of Athens. Berlin and Boston: De Gruyter. ISBN   978-3-11-063321-4.
• Weir, Robert G. A. (1995). "The Lost Archaic Wall around Athens". Phoenix. 49 (3): 247–258. doi:10.2307/1192524. JSTOR   1192524.
• Winter, F. E. (1971). Greek Fortifications. Routledge & Kegan Paul. ISBN   978-0-608154244.