To the S. of the temple-precinct lay the City Well of Kallirrhoë. Peisistratos connected it with his aqueduct from the upper Ilissos valley, and provided it with nine spouts, whence it was called Enneákrunos.
b. The Acropolis.
The abrupt limestone plateau (512 ft.) on which stands the Acropolis, or castle of Athens, has formed from hoar antiquity the nucleus of all the settlements in the Attic plain. The legendary Pelasgi are said to have first levelled the top of the hill, enclosed it with a wall, and erected the so-called Enneápylon, an outwork with nine gates, to defend the sole approach on the W. side. The Acropolis contained the residence of the kings and the chief sanctuaries of the state. The kings afterwards transferred their seat to the lower city, Peisistratos alone preferring to reside in the Acropolis. The ancient buildings were destroyed by the Persians in 480–479. Themistokles and Kimon rebuilt the walls, and Perikles then became the chief founder of those magnificent buildings which, even in their ruins, still present the finest picture of the unrivalled art of antiquity.
Tramway, see p. [503].
The avenue mentioned above which ascends to the W. at the Odeion of Herodes Atticus brings us to the so-called Beulé Gate, on the plateau below the last steep W. slope of the **Acropolis. Carriages stop here. Visitors admitted till sunset.
The Beulé Gate, named after the French savant who discovered it, was entirely built over by bastions down to 1852, but since 1889 has formed the chief entrance to the Acropolis (side-entrance under the Nike bastion). The towers flanking the gateway were built about 50 A.D.; the gateway itself dates from 160 A.D. and is embellished with fragments from a choragic monument erected by Nikias in 319.
From the Beulé Gate we ascend a flight of marble steps, with many gaps, to the Propylæa. This staircase, which also was made in the first half of the 1st cent. A.D., replaces the steep ancient track.
The tower-like pedestal on the left, below the Propylæa, once bore a Statue of M. Vipsanius Agrippa, the general and son-in-law of Emp. Augustus, erected between 27 and 12 A.D.
To the right of the Propylæa projects a bastion, 26 ft. high, from which a small flight of marble steps descends, stopping short of our staircase. On this bastion rises the *Temple of Nike (Athena Nike, erroneously called Nike Apteros), which was reconstructed with the ancient stones in 1835–6. Its date is uncertain (probably between 440 and 410 B.C.).
Like the Propylæa this little temple, 27 ft. long and 18 ft. wide, is built entirely of Pentelic marble. It stands on a basement of three steps, and is preceded at the E. and W. ends by a portico of four Ionic columns 13 ft. high. Above the tripartite architrave runs a sculptured frieze 85 ft. long and 18 inches high. At the E. end it represents a council of the gods, among whom are Athena with her shield (in the centre) and Zeus (sitting) next to her. On the sides are battles of the Greeks with the Persians (some of them mounted). At the W. end is a conflict between Greeks and Greeks. Only a few fragments of the roof have been found; it ended on the E. and W. in pediments which were unadorned. The entrance to the cella is formed by two pillars.