ΧΑΪΔΑΡΙ ΧΑΪΔΑΡΙ - ΣΥΝΑΝΤΗΣΗ ΜΕ ΤΗΝ ΙΣΤΟΡΙΑ | Page 71

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quarters for the priests and the base for the statue of
the goddess. In the 1930s, I. Traulos and K. Kourouniotis
concluded the excavations.
The sanctuary has a roughly rectangular enclosure wall
(71x21 m), with an entrance and propylon to the south.
There was a very small, almost square temple, with a
doric portico and marble roof, on the west side of the
wall. There is also a stoa and other buildings of unknown
function. There are many bases of statues and votive
inscriptions to Aphrodite, as well as altars and other
votives, mainly clay figurines depicting the goddess, or
vulvae and birds, the symbols of the goddess. It seems
that the whole area of the sanctuary, including the
niches would have been full of votive offerings, including
statues, stelae, large vessels etc.
A complex to the south probably served as residence
area for both priests and travellers. A rectangular guard
house (25x15 m) lies south of the Sacred Way. Two
later sarcophagi testify to its funerary re-use. The exact
establishment date of the sanctuary is unknown, but
it should not be earlier than the 4th century BC. The
sanctuary lived until the Roman times and is today open
to the public.
Sacred Way and Echo hill
The Sacred Way split after the sanctuary of Aphrodite.
One road went towards the west through the mountains
of Aigaleo and Poikilo, round Echo (Kapsalonas) hill
and then to the north to the Reiton lakes. Another road
went north over Echo hill and then met the other road at
lake Koumoundourou. A rectangular stone block, 1.18 m
long and 0.47 m high, may have been a boundary base
between Athens and Eleusina.
Reitoi (Koumoundourou Lake)
Reitoi were two small artificial lakes on the west foot of
Mt Aigaleo. Their springs were in natural cavities, which
were blocked in antiquity. The stream outlets to the
sea were crossed via bridges. Before these works the
Clay figurines from the Pan cave at Daphni, 5th century
(Archaeologiki Efimeris 1936-37, p. 406 fig. 23-25).
place had been a swamp and impossible to cross. The
water had salt, due to its proximity to the sea.
The north lake was devoted to Demeter and the south
to Persephone. The latter is preserved until today and
is called Lake Koumoundourou. It marks the border
between Chaidari and Aspropyrgos, and it used to be
the boundary between Athens and Eleusina. I. Traulos
recognized that some of the building blocks of the dam
came from the Peisistratian sanctuary at Eleusina, which
was destroyed by the Persians in 479 BC. An inscription
of the Athenian Boule of 421 BC, now in the Museum
of Eleusina, mentions the construction of a bridge 1.5 m
wide, hence for pedestrians only.
Both streams and lakes had been preserved until the 19th
century and featured two water mills, noted by François
Pouqueville, while Gustave Flaubert saw only a swamp. Until
the 1950s both lakes were natural fish reserves. The south
lake was named either after the local land owners, or prime
minister Alexandros Koumoundouros (1817-1883), responsible
for road building in the area during the 1860s. The post-World
War II widening of the national road reduced the size of the
lake significantly. The north lake, Kephalari, was backfilled
during the construction of the oil refinery at Aspropyrgos. Its
place is today marked by a swamp.