Archaeological Site of Pnyx

The Pnyx is a hill or hillside in central Athens [1]. The Pnyx is located less than 1 kilometre west of the Acropolis and about 2 km south-west of the Syntagma Square in the centre of Athens [1]. Pericles, Aristides and Alcibiades spoke here, within sight of the Parthenon [1]. Here Demosthenes delivered his vilifications of Philip II of Macedon [1]. The Pnyx is a small, rocky hill surrounded by parkland, with a large flat platform of eroded stone set into its side, and by steps carved on its slope [1]. It was the meeting place of one of the world's earliest known democratic legislatures, the Athenian ekklesia, and the flat stone platform was the bema, the "stepping stone" or speakers' platform [1]. In 1910, excavations began at the site by the Greek Archaeological Society and confirmed the site as the Pnyx [1]. Large-scale excavations were conducted at times between 1930 and 1937 by Homer Thompson [1].