No. 7, Ægina. The well-known island sixteen miles from Athens in the
Gulf of Ægina. It was a very celebrated place in the ancient days
of Greece. The population now of 10,000 was then 600,000. Ægina
contributed thirty warships to the battle of Salamis against the
Persians. There are the ruins now of a temple to Venus and those of
one to the Pentelic Jupiter.
No. 8, Piræus. The port of Athens: population about 27,000: five
miles to the southwest of the city, to which it used to be joined in
antiquity by the famous Long Walls built by Themistocles and Pericles.
No. 9, Phalerum. One of the three ports of ancient Athens, about three
miles from the city; it is now a much frequented seaside resort,
with hotels, and private villas. In the hot summer days, people go
down from Athens, morning and evening, for sea baths.
No. 10, The Theseum. A temple consecrated in 470 B. C. in Athens, to
Theseus, the national hero of Attica. In ancient days it often served
as a sanctuary for slaves. It is situated on a low hill, northeast of
the Acropolis, and is a fine monument in very good preservation. It
is a peripteric, hexastyle temple, in Pentelic marble. Any children
wanting to know more about Theseus, have only to read "The Minotaur,"
in Hawthorne's Tanglewood Tales.
No. 11, Monastiraki. One of the stations of the Athens Piræus
railway line.
No. 12, Drachma. Worth one franc; about 20 cents in American money.
No. 13, Oke. A measure of weight equal in English weight to 2 lbs.,
12 oz.
No. 14, Lepton. The one-hundredth part of the drachma: one centime. The
smallest coin in Greek money is of five lepta.
No. 15, Kiphissia. A country place about half an hour by train from
Athens: takes its name from the ancient river Kephissos or Kiphissos:
a very wooded, pretty, green place full of hotels and country
houses, much cooler than Athens in the summer, and consequently
much frequented.
No. 16, The Kolonaki. A small square in Athens, behind the Kiphissia
Road; the little bootblacks congregate there a good deal.
No. 17, The Zappion. A large handsome building in the ancient style
of architecture, built originally for exhibition purposes by two
rich brothers called Zappa (hence its name), situated on a height,
and commanding perhaps the most beautiful view in the whole world,
certainly in Europe. It comprises the columns of the temple of Olympic
Jupiter in the foreground, the Acropolis to the right, the Stadium
to the left, and in the distance Phalerum, the sea, and Salamis. The
Zappion terrace and gardens are a very favorite walking place for
children, babies, and their nurses.
No. 18, Acropolis. The immortal Rock bearing the Parthenon, the
Propylæa, the Erechtheum,--It is an isolated rock of oval form,
inaccessible except from the west. It is entered to-day by the famous
"Porte Beulé". There is too much to be said about the Acropolis,
I can only quote Rennell Rodd, that perfect modern singer of Greece:--
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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