Pláka Archaeological Sites, Athens

From Dionysíou Areopagítou Street, at the point where it joins Apostólou Pávlou Street, a road branches off and goes up to a parking place on the far side of the hill. From here a path runs east along the rocky hill to the prominent monument of Philopappos, a prince of Commagene (southeast Anatolia) who was banished to Athens by the Romans and died there in A.D. 116. In gratitude for his munificence the Athenians allowed his ostentatious tomb to be erected on this exceptional site - an honor, it has been remarked, that was not granted even to a man like Pericles in the great days of Athens.On the frieze around the base Philopappos is shown in the guise of a Roman consul, mounted in a chariot and accompanied by lictors. Above this are seated figures of the dead man and (to the left) Antiochos IV, his grandfather.On the way to (or from) this monument of the personality cult under the Roman Empire, there can be seen some remains of the diateichisma, the intermediate wall built in 337 B.C. to shorten the defensive lines between the Long Walls. Here too are various cisterns and rock-cut chambers, one of them traditionally misnamed the Prison of Socrates (now identified to the southwest of the Agora).

The Pnyx 110m/361ft is one of the range of three hills - the others being the Hill of the Nymphs and the Hill of the Muses - to the southwest of the Acropolis. After the reform of Kleisthenes (508-507 B.C.) the Ekklesia, the popular assembly of Athens, met here, before moving to the Theater of Dionysos in the fourth century B.C. Here men like Themistocles addressed the people of Athens.There are remains of the rock-cut orators' platform, with the altar of Zeus (ca. 400 B.C.) behind it; the retaining wall (ca. 330 B.C.), built of huge blocks of stone, which supported the semicircular auditorium on the north, and the diateichisma, the wall built in 337 B.C. to shorten the line of the city's defenses. Along the west side are the rows of seating for the spectators of the son et lumière shows which now take place here. Near the Ayios Dimitrios is a pretty woodland cafe.

At the western end of the chain of hills which runs southwest of the Acropolis is the Hill of the Nymphs, easily identifiable by the domed Observatory on the summit. It is reached by way of a side street off Apostólou Pávlou Street. The Classical-style Observatory was built by Theophil Hansen in 1843-46 to the design of Schaubert. To the right of the entrance are the remains of the ancient sanctuary of the Nymphs from which the hill takes its name - a levelled rock surface and a dedicatory inscription. This level platform on the highest point of the hill was chosen by Ferdinand Stademann in 1835 as the viewpoint from which to draw his "Panorama of Athens" (republished 1977).To the southeast the Hill of the Nymphs merges into the Pnyx. From both hills there are fine views of Athens.

The Hill of the Muses is part of a chain of low hills to the southwest of the Acropolis, the others being the Pnyx and the Hill of the Nymphs. From the top of the hill (147m /482ft) there is the classic and beautiful view of the Acropolis, with Lykabettos rearing up behind.