Wordsworth, Christopher: Greece, pictorial, descriptive and historical (London, 1853)

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PHYSICAL SKETCH OF ATHENS.

in length. It is inaccessible on all sides but the west, on which it is
approached by a steep slope. This is the future Ackopoi.is, or Citadel of
Athens. We jilace ourselves upon this eminence, and cast our eyes about us.
Immediately on the west is a second hill, of irregular form, lower than that

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on which we stand, and opposite to it. This is the Areopagus. Beneath it,
on the south-west, is a valley, neither deep nor narrow, open both at the
north-west and south-east. Here was the Agora, or public place of Athens.
Above it, to the south-west, rises another hill, formed, like the two others
already mentioned, of hard and rugged limestone, clothed here and there with
a scanty covering of herbage. On this hill the popular assemblies of the future
citizens of Athens will be held. It will be called the Pnyx. To the south
of it is a fourth hill, of similar kind, known in after-ages as the Museum.
Thus, a group of four hills is presented to our view, which nearly inclose the
space wherein the Athenian Agora existed, as the Forum of Rome lay between
the hills of the Capitol and the Palatine.

Beyond the plain, to the south-west, the sea is visible, distant about ioui
miles from this central rock. On the coast are three bays,—the future Hai-
bours of Athens,—the Phalerum, Munychia, and Piraeus ; the first being