Greece 2023: Ancient Underground Athens

 One of the comments that our tour guide made more than once is that Greece is a country run by the archaeologists.  That is not quite the surprise that statement might seem:  with so many settlements built on ruins of older settlements and so many surviving historical buildings, Greece in a way is a museum  that is tied to its past in a way not every country is.  Especially in Athens, history is literally layered on history.

At the site of the Acropolis Museum where all of the original stonework and archaeological finds of the Acropolis are located, there is an excavated portion of ancient Athens which was found at the site of the build - and is now part of the exhibit of the museum.  The pictures below represent homes, workshops, toilets, and storerooms which were in use between 500 B.C. and 500 A.D.   

The narrow channels below represent a sewer system.

At our last hotel in the basement level (where breakfast was served), excavations had discovered part of the wall of Themistokles (479 B.C.), built after the Persians had burned down Athens.  There is a story about this wall that at the time, the Spartans had not wanted the wall rebuilt so Themistokles, the master mind of the battle of Salamis (480 B.C.), went on an embassy to Sparta and told the Athenians to build a wall with whatever they had.  He prevaricated, delayed, and put off the Spartans until the wall was built.  Seeing this was a special touch point for me between the history that I had read and the history that still exists.