The Agora
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Athens’ ancient marketplace, founded in the 6th century BC, was the heart of the city for 1,200 years. It was the centre for all civic activities, including politics, commerce, philosophy, religion, arts and athletics. This is where Socrates addressed his public, where democracy was born and where St Paul preached. Because of its varied uses, the rambling site can be confusing. But, unlike the sweltering Acropolis, the grassy Agora is a great place to wander, imagining the lively bustle that once filled this historic centre.
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1. Stoa Basileios
Built in 500 BC, this building housed the office of legal affairs concerning ancient cults. Most of it was destroyed when the Goths invaded Athens in AD 267. Its ruins are best viewed from Adrianou.
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2. Odeon of Agrippa
Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa, an official with the first emperor Augustus, had this theatre built in AD 15. Outside stood statues featuring three serpent-tailed Giants and Tritons on huge plinths. Two Tritons and a Giant still remain.
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3. Temple of Hephaestus
The best-preserved Classical temple in Greece, devoted jointly to Hephaestus and Athena. Its fantastical frieze depicts the deeds of Theseus and Herakles.
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4. Tholos
The 50-member executive committee of the first parliament lived and worked in this circular building, whose name translates as “beehive”.
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5. Great Drain
When Athens experiences a downpour, the still functioning Great Drain collects runoff from the Acropolis, Areopagos and Agora, and sends it to the now mostly dry Eridanos river.
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6. Monument of the Eponymous Heroes
Citizens were divided into 10 tribes (phylae ), each represented by a different Attican hero. This monument, dated 350 BC, had bronze statues of each representative tribal hero: Antiochos, Ajax, Leos, Hippothoon, Erechtheus, Aegeus, Cecrops, Akamas, Pandion and Oeneus.
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7. Altar of Zeus Agoraios
This lavish temple to the ruler of the gods was originally built elsewhere in Athens (possibly the Pnyx) in the 4th century BC. In the first century AD, it was dismantled, brought to the Agora and reconstructed.
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8. Middle Stoa
The large Middle Stoa took up the major part of the central marketplace, its two aisles lined with Doric columns.
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9. Nymphaion
The ruins of the Nymphaion, an elaborate 2nd-century fountain-house, are still visible, despite the building of a Byzantine church over it in the 11th century.
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10. Stoa of Attalos
King Attalos II of Pergamon (159–138 BC) built this impressive two-storey structure. It was reconstructed in 1956 by the American School of Archaeology. Today the Stoa is a world-class museum displaying finds from the Agora. (see Agora Museum (Stoa of Attalos))
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