Phyle - Monument Hill of the Muses Phiópappos

Phyle, like Panakton (on the old road from Athens to Thebes) and Dekeleia (near present-day Tatói, on the east side of Mount Párnis), was one of a ring of frontier fortresses built in the fourth century B.C. to protect Attica against attack from the Megarid and Boeotia to the west. The road from Athens runs via Anó Liossía to the village of Filí (terminus of bus) and continues northwest past the Moní ton Klistón (4km/2.25mi). 6km/4mi beyond the monastery, at the end of the asphalted road, the fortress of Phyle can be seen on the left.

Phyle stands in a rugged mountain setting on a rectangular plateau (alt. 638m - 2,241ft), commanding the pass which carried the old road from Athens to Tanagra in Boeotia. The site had probably been occupied by an earlier fortress in which Thrasyboulos assembled his followers in 403 B.C. for the attack on the Thirty Tyrants. The west and southwest parts of the fourth C. fortress (excavated by Skias in 1900) have collapsed into the gorge. Considerable stretches of the imposing walls of dressed stone have been preserved to the level of the wall-walk on the east and southeast. The stones measure 2.75m by 38cm (9ft by 1ft 3in.).