GREECE MACEDONIA CHALKIDIKI OLYNTHOS

A member of the Athenian Alliance in the Classical period, Olynthos broke away in 440 BC, and in 432 BC became the capital of the Chalkidic League, which was a powerful alliance against Athens of thirty-two coastal cities of Chalkidike, whose inhabitants all moved to Olynthos. This new situation led to the emergence of a new city on the North Hill, which, in the first half of the 4th century became the most powerful city in Chalkidike. This Classical city of 432 BC was built according to a Hippodamean plan on the plateau and the East slope of the North Hill.

Excavations and a reconstruction of the plan show that the city had at least five long avenues five to seven metres wide, which ran from North to South and were intersected at right angles by twenty or more streets five metres wide. There were thus formed a number of insulae of equal size on the flat part of the hill. The insulae on the east side were smaller and followed the sloping terrain. The plan was slightly different at the western limit of the hill, where the insulae had a single row of houses, the west wall of which was in fact the west section of the defensive wall that surrounded the whole city. In the fourth century BC, the city expanded eastwards outside the wall to form a new district, known as The Villas, which consisted of the residences of the wealthy landowners.

The ruins are protected by covering the top surface of the walls with one or more courses of stones from the excavation. The authentic and added sections were separated by a joint of mortar, which clearly marks off the restored section, but the original layers can sometimes be quite low.

Above left: The paved streets with drainage channels follow the natural slope of the ground to assist the run-off of the rainwater. - Above right: A conserved clay drainage pipe. - Below: Replica of a clay bathtub and original water repositories.