Ardittos Hill, Athens

Ardittos Hill is a public park rising to 133 metres, with pine trees and Mediterranean vegetation covering its slopes. The wooded hill overlooks the Panathenaic Stadium; it stands east of the Ilissos river. In antiquity, temples made this hill an important sacred place, with a prominence second only to the Acropolis.

After Herodes Atticus rebuilt the Panathenaic Stadium in 144 AD, he placed a small temple to Tyche on the hill, and its foundations remain visible. This was also where Athenian citizens older than 30 took the Heliastic oath before serving as jurors. As legend has it, the mythical Ardittis brought democratic and oligarchic factions together through persuasion and a solemn oath; the hill’s name comes from him. That combination of living parkland and surviving temple foundations gives this hillside an unusually direct link to ancient civic life.