Modern Athens is a bustling, overgrown city, continually coming to terms with
its illustrious past. Dominated by the Parthenon, the world-famous symbol of
classical antiquity, it has been touched by every aspect of Greece's turbulent
history, suffering invasions and occupations, sieges, division and dictatorship,
and has grown dramatically into a metropolis of four million people. Michael
Llewellyn Smith describes the history and culture of Athens, site of the 2004
Olympic Games and city of monuments enduring, purged and restored. Exploring its
streets and squares, he reveals layers of Ancient Greek, Roman and Byzantine
history, elegant Bavarian neoclassical buildings, and a modern city of concrete
and glass, metro and