ISS009-E-11537 Click the photo number to access all resolutions available and the database record.
There are many remnants of ancient Athens preserved in the modern city, including the Acropolis (labeled above; also see the earlier ISS photograph, The Acropolis, Greece). During the Classical Period, Athens was an important Mediterranean city-state whose enduring political and military dominance of the region was only ended following the Peloponnesian War of 431-404 BC. Following a long succession of foreign rulers, Athens became the capitol of the current Hellenic Republic (Greece) in 1834. The 2004 Olympic Games this week mark a homecoming for the modern Games, which were first hosted in Athens in 1896.
This astronaut photograph includes areas of new construction or renovation for the Olympic Games, such as the Faliro Coastal Zone Olympic Complex and Helliniko Olympic Complex. The image also demonstrates the control of bounding mountain ranges (Mts. Aigeleos and Hymettos) on the western and southern expansion of the Athens urban area. However, polygonal regions of high brightness in and adjacent to the mountains attest to ongoing development and land use change in these areas as well.
The ISS-9 Space Station crew obtained this high-resolution image of the western Athens area in June of 2004, allowing for detailed observations of land cover and land use changes in the urban area.
