Walking through the densely built metropolis of Athens, few visitors or even locals realise the Greek capital was once crisscrossed by three major rivers, not to mention some 700 smaller streams that flowed into them.
The Kifisos, the Iridanos and the Ilisos were buried under concrete during the city’s postwar car-centred development, in what daily newspaper Kathimerini has labelled “a crime against the city”.
But part of the Ilisos, on whose banks the philosophers Socrates, Plato and Aristotle all taught – could soon be freed from its concrete sarcophagus, if a proposal by Anaplasis – a government organisation seeking to renew the centre of Athens through design – gains approval.
The catalyst for the river’s potential rebirth came about after a survey in October showed the parlous state of the walls that entomb the Ilisos under tram lines near the city’s central Syntagma square.
The tram lines have been “closed until further notice” and a report revealed that extensive maintenance – or even a complete and prohibitively costly replacement – would required to make the tram safe again.
Instead, Anaplasis (“Regeneration”) has suggested that instead of wasting money on short-term solutions, the tram lines could be rerouted and the city get its river back.
