No other city has contributed more to the civilization of mankind than Athens. It is the city where Socrates, Plato, Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides and many others were born. It is the place where humanism and democracy originated. The intellectual light that Athens created will always be alive.
According to the Greek mythology, Athens was named as a result of the competition that the goddess Athena had with Poseidon, about who will become protector of the city. The myth says that Poseidon offered a spring with sea water whilst Athena offered an olive tree as she touched the ground of the sacred rock of the Acropolis. The people of Athens choose Athena as their protector and so the city was named after the goddess of wisdom. The myth is symbolic, with the two Gods embodying the strength of Athens as a city of wisdom and as a sea power. The first settlement of Athens in 3000 BC was situated on the rock of Acropolis.
	The history of Athens is the longest of any city in Europe. Athens has been continuously inhabited for at least 3,000 years. It became the leading city of Ancient Greece in the first millennium B.C. Its cultural achievements during the 5th century B.C. laid the foundations of western civilization. During the Middle Ages, Athens experienced a decline and then a recovery, under the Byzantine Empire. Athens was relatively prosperous during the Crusades, benefiting from Italian trade. After a long period of decline under the rule of the Ottoman Empire, Athens re-emerged in the 19th century as the capital of the independent Greek State. To further explore the Athenian History, please visit http://www.athensinfoguide.com/history.htm