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MEETINGREECE
18
ATHENS - ATTICA
you will easily find it on your right. Kerameikos is named after
Keramos (pottery), from which the English word ceramic derived.
The area was used continuously for burials from the 12th century
BC for a thousand years.
P I RA EUS
Piraeus is a city in the periphery of Attica, and within the Athens
urban area, located 12 km southwest of its center and upon the
Saronic Gulf. According to the 2001 census, Piraeus has a
population of 175.697 people within its administrative limits,
making it the third largest municipality in Greece and the second
within the Greek capital following the municipality of Athens. The
Piraeus urban area extends beyond the administrative city limits
to the suburban municipalities, with a total population of 466.065.
Piraeus has a long history, which dates back to ancient Greece.
The effects of its natural space and geographical place have
been critical factors for the configuration of the historical fate of
Piraeus. The development of the harbour has been always
combined with periods of proportional acme and progress of the
city, while in the periods of the harbour’s decay the city
languished. The city was largely developed in the early 5th
century BC, when it was selected to serve as the port city of
classical Athens and was transformed into a prototype harbour,
concentrating all the import and transit trade of Athens.
Consequently, it became the chief harbour of ancient Greece but
declined gradually after the 4th century AD, and began to grow
again in the 19th century, especially after the declaration of
Athens as the capital of Greece. In modern era, Piraeus is a big
city bustling with life and an integral part of Athens, having the
biggest harbour in the country and all the typical characteristics
of a huge marine and commercial-industrial center.
The port of Piraeus is the No 1 port in Greece, servicing about 20
million passengers annually. Piraeus is also considered to be
among the first ten ports in container traffic in Europe and the top
container port in Eastern Mediterranean.
T HE A T T I CA ZOOLOG I CA L P ARK
A must-see of every visitor is also the Attica Zoological Park
which extends to a total area of 20 hectares, hosting more than
2.000 animals from 350 different species. It opened in May 2000,
initially as a Bird Park, hosting the 3rd largest bird collection in the
world (1.100 birds from 300 different species), farm animals for
the younger visitors and 3 very impressive walk-in aviaries
miniatures of the 3 continents in which visitors can walk and
admire the relevant bird fauna and flora. In April 2001, when the
World of Reptiles was added to the Attica Zoological Park,
constant expansions and additions began including the Greek
Fauna section, with animals rarely seen in Greece (summer
2002), the African Savannah with animals from Africa (February
2003), the monkeys and apes section (June 2003), the
completion of the Big Cats section and the extension of the
African Savannah (December 2004), the Monkey Forest, where
visitors can be in the same enclosure with the monkeys (early
2005), the Cheetah Land, where 4 Cheetahs are kept in a large
enclosure which visitors can cross through a special corridor, the
chimpanzees and gibbons section (March 2008) and finally the
Arid Lands section hosting animals such as camels, Somali wild
asses, etc. (April 2008). In addition, in May 2010, 2 white male
rhinos were added to the Park’s family and in June 2010, 4
dolphins and 2 California sea lions became members of AZP’s
family. Future plans include the expansion of the facilities with
Dinosavropolis, an Evolution Museum with an emphasis on the
Age of the Dinosaurs, as well as Okeanopolis, an Aquarium of
international stature.
http://www.atticapark.com/