57 KERAMEIKOS 148 Ermou str., Thission, Athens Tel: (+30) 210 3463552 Admission Full 2 €, reduced 1 € Combined ticket: full 12 €, reduced 6 € The site is accessible to the disabled Access Metro: line 1, Thissio station, line 3, Kerameikos station Bus: 049, Gazi stop Trolley bus: 21, Gazi stop
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The ancient Kerameikos, a region occupied by potters, as its name suggests, was on the north-west fringes of ancient Athens and extended both inside and outside the walls that now traverse the site of the excavations. Two gates, the Dipylon and the Sacred Gate, connected the “inner” with the “outer” Kerameikos. The area around these gates was the most ancient and largest cemetery known in Attica. Beneath the impressive remains of the Hellenistic walls and outwork (proteichisma) it is possible to discern all the earlier building phases of the fortifications of Athens, beginning with the polygonal wall built in great haste by Themistokles in 478 BC, the material of which even included gravestones, some of which now adorn the small Museum on the site and the National Archaeological Museum. In the centre of the site, very close to each other, can be seen the two most famous gates of ancient Athens, the Dipylon and the Sacred Gate, which took its name from the Sacred Way, the road followed by the procession of the Eleusinian mysteries. The river Eridanos also passed through the Sacred Gate, as it still does today, having been covered over since the Roman period. As was the custom in the antiquity, the city of the dead extended outside the gates, along the most important roads. The Dipylon Gate gave its name to the magnificent Attic Geometric amphoras and kraters that stood as grave markers testifying to the courage and wealth of the members of the great Attic clans. In the Archaic period the site was dominated by large tumuli, which can still be made out today.