| Page Views: 20 Last Visit to Piraeus: October, 2006 | Piraeus by Aitana - last update: Apr 4, 2009 |
Berfore being to Greece, I used to consider Piraeus as Athens’ port. But Pireaus is much more than that, it is a large municipality with a population of about half a million including suburbs. It has its own personality. |
|  | Piraeus was not always the natural port of Athens: in early antiquity Piraeus was a rocky island separated from the mainland by a marsh called Halipedon (salt field). In that period the harbor of Phaleron was the natural port of Athens. By the end of the 6th century BC, when the flooding had ceased and the soil was safe, the peninsula was fortified by Hippias and Piraeus became the harbor of Athens, as this was deeper than Phaleron harbor.
In the History of the Peloponnesian War (5th century BC), Thucydides reports the construction of the Long Walls, connecting Athens to Piraeus and Phaleron. Today, the Electric train connects them instead. |
| | Piraeus is the largest passenger port (20 million passengers/year) and among the first ten ports in container traffic in Europe.
Apart from the large port of Piraeus, there are two small ones, Pasalimani and Mikrolimano (or Turkolimano), the most picturesque of them. |
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