Phaleron Bay
Encyclopedia
Athens
Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...
overlooking Andreas Syngrou Avenue. The bay is flanked by Neo Faliro at the Peace and Friendship Stadium
Peace and Friendship Stadium
The Stadio Eirinis kai Filias , known as S.E.F., is a multi-use indoor sports arena that is located in Faliro, Piraeus, Athens, Greece. It is the central venue of the Faliro Coastal Zone Olympic Complex and is mostly known for being the long-time home court of the famous Euroleague basketball club...
and a harbor street encircling the western part of the bay, Poseidonos Avenue
Poseidonos Avenue
Poseidonos Avenue is a coastal road in Piraeus, Greece , that runs from Faliron to Glyfada, and beyond. Several Greek films were shot on the road, particularly between the 1950s and the 1980s, along with television shows since the 1980s. The road turns into GR-91 after Glyfada, a dangerous road...
along with Moschato
Moschato
Moschato , is a suburb in the south southern part of Athens, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Moschato-Tavros, of which it is the seat and a municipal unit....
(Cephissus River
Cephissus (Athenian plain)
Cephissus , Kifissós) or Cephisus Kifisos), a river flowing through the Athenian plain.In his summary of Greek mythology Apollodorus declares that Erechtheus' wife Praxithea was daughter of Phrasimus by Diogenia daughter of Cephissus.This river is found in the western part of the...
) and Kallithea
Kallithea
Kallithea is the 8th largest municipality in Greece and the 4th biggest in the Athens urban area...
in the north and Palaio Faliro
Palaio Faliro
Palaio Faliro is a suburb in the southern part of Athens, Greece. The area is famous for its beaches , forming Athens' nearest beach and Piraeus' only beach...
in the southeast.
The bay includes the Faliro
Faliro
Faliro is a seaside suburb 8 km southwest of downtown Athens. There are two communities sharing the name: Palaio and Neo Faliro. Palaio Faliro is a municipality, whereas Neo Faliro is part of the town of Piraeus...
n Marina in the south, which harbors hundreds of boats and yachts, and a small beach to the west. Phaleron Bay was extensively landscaped for the Athens 2004 Olympic Games
Olympic Games
The Olympic Games is a major international event featuring summer and winter sports, in which thousands of athletes participate in a variety of competitions. The Olympic Games have come to be regarded as the world’s foremost sports competition where more than 200 nations participate...
: the waterfront was made into a broad water-themed Promenade, the beach volleyball
Beach volleyball
Beach volleyball, or sand volleyball, is an Olympic team sport played by two teams of two players on a sand court divided by a net.Like volleyball, the object of the game is to send the ball over the net in order to ground it on the opponent’s court, and to prevent the same effort by the opponent....
venue and Tae-Kwon-Do Sports Pavilion were erected, and the Peace and Friendship Stadium
Peace and Friendship Stadium
The Stadio Eirinis kai Filias , known as S.E.F., is a multi-use indoor sports arena that is located in Faliro, Piraeus, Athens, Greece. It is the central venue of the Faliro Coastal Zone Olympic Complex and is mostly known for being the long-time home court of the famous Euroleague basketball club...
was renovated. The intersections of Poseidonos Avenue with Syngrou Avenue and GR-A8
Greek National Road 8
The National Road 8 in Greece is a single carriageway with at-grade intersections in the Attica and Peloponnese regions. It links the cities of Patras, Corinth and Athens. Until the 1960s when the National Road 8A, a toll road, replaced it as a major route, it was the only road linking Athens and...
were rebuilt as complex flyovers, while the land between the venues was landscaped with lawns and trees.
The Park of Maritime Tradition, a collection of preserved historic ships, is located next to the marina. At the southern tip is the permanent anchorage of the armored cruiser HS Averoff (now a floating museum), which was the admiralty ship of the Hellenic Navy
Hellenic Navy
The Hellenic Navy is the naval force of Greece, part of the Greek Armed Forces. The modern Greek navy has its roots in the naval forces of various Aegean Islands, which fought in the Greek War of Independence...
during the Balkan Wars
Balkan Wars
The Balkan Wars were two conflicts that took place in the Balkans in south-eastern Europe in 1912 and 1913.By the early 20th century, Montenegro, Bulgaria, Greece and Serbia, the countries of the Balkan League, had achieved their independence from the Ottoman Empire, but large parts of their ethnic...
and World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
. Other museum ships include the Hellenic Navy destroyer HS Velos (D16), the old cable ship Thalis o Milissions (Thales of Miletos) and Olympias, a modern reconstruction of an ancient trireme
Trireme
A trireme was a type of galley, a Hellenistic-era warship that was used by the ancient maritime civilizations of the Mediterranean, especially the Phoenicians, ancient Greeks and Romans.The trireme derives its name from its three rows of oars on each side, manned with one man per oar...
naval ship.
About 3,000 years ago, there were ceremonies related with the Eleusinian Mysteries
Eleusinian Mysteries
The Eleusinian Mysteries were initiation ceremonies held every year for the cult of Demeter and Persephone based at Eleusis in ancient Greece. Of all the mysteries celebrated in ancient times, these were held to be the ones of greatest importance...
on 16th Boedromion with the celebrants washing themselves in the sea at Phaleron.