Athanasia Chrysafis Biska

The Long Walls of Athens, erected in the mid 5th century BC, connected 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 harbour 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 harbours 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]