Markets and Agora 10 May

 Walking the now mandatory 10 km,  we went to the pedestrian precinct for upmarket shopping, Ermou St ("just turn down from McDonald's at Syntagma Square"), then to the Flea  Market, Central Market and Agora. In all areas, like shops clustered together, whether fashionable shoes, butchers, hardware or whatever.   Easy for comparative shopping.  Ermou was a very pleasant thoroughfare,ending with a Greek church (chapels were everywhere).  Clothing was good quality and not over-priced.  I later drove shopkeepers crazy looking for gold earrings, but nothing was quite right.

The Central Market smelled good, even the meat and fish avenues. Note the snails.

Temple of Hephaiston 650-600 BC

The ancient Agora had two large buildings, the Temple of Hephaistos and Stoa of Attalos.

Centaurs and lapiths we assume

Stoa of Attalos 159-138 BC

Child's commode early 6th C BC

The Agora was the centre of political, commercial, legal and religious life.  In the 1950s Americans rebuilt the Stoa of Attalos, 120 m long and 20 m deep.  It had 21 shops on two levels and a colonnade used for public meetings.  Today it houses the Agora Museum which displays many items of great interest, including an hydraulic clock to time political speeches.

Kleroteria used to select juries