The story of Athens is almost as old as time itself with a history that spans back for more than seven thousand years.

The grounds where Athens stands nowadays were once home to a prominent residential center of the Mycenaean civilization and Acropolis hill was occupied by a large fortress.

After the Dorian invasion, the region suffered an extensive economic recess period that lasted more than a century.

However, the advantageous geographic location of the city made Athens advance and prosper in the following years.

Thus, along with Sparta and Thebes, Athens became a major trading center and a considerable center of naval power.

The 6th and 5th centuries BC were probably the most paramount historical period for the violet-crowned city.

Ensuing the reforms of Solomon, democracy was introduced for the first time to Athenians by Cleisthenes.

But the new regime had no time to properly flourish as shortly after, Athens and Sparta spearheaded the Greek states’ forces in the Greco-Persian wars and came out victorious after the famous battles of Marathon and Salamis.

The peaceful period of the following decades was named the Golden Age of Athenian democracy with sciences and culture coming to the foreground.

An abundance of achievements in physics, philosophy, politics and arts were laying the ground for the rest of the western civilization that was soon to follow.