:This article refers to the Greek city. Piraeus is also a figure in Greek mythology, appearing in The Odyssey.

Piraeus (Modern Greek: Πειραιάς , Ancient Greek / Katharevousa: Πειραιεύς ) is a city in the periphery of Attica, Greece, located to the south of the city of Athens. It is the capital of the Piraeus Prefecture and belongs to the Athens urban area. It was the port of the ancient city of Athens and it was chosen to serve as the modern port when Athens was re-founded in 1834. Piraeus remains one of the busiest shipping and industrial centres of the Mediterranean and is the terminus for Line 1 (the "green line"), the electric train service now incorporated into the Athens Metro.

The population of the dimos (municipality) of Piraeus (Δήμος Πειραιώς) is 175,697 (2001). The nomarchia of Piraeus, which includes the surrounding land and some of the islands of the Saronic Gulf, has a population of 541,504 (2001). It consists of a rocky promontory, containing three natural harbours, a large one on the north-west which is an important commercial harbour for the eastern Mediterranean Sea, and two smaller ones, Zea and Mikrolimano, used for naval purposes. The port serves ferry routes to almost every island in the eastern portion of Greece, the island of Crete, the Cyclades, the Dodecanese, and much of the northern and the eastern Aegean. The western part of the port is used for cargo services and covers a huge area. Much of that part of the harbour is in suburban Drapetsona and Keratsini.

History

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Ancient times
Piraeus has been inhabited since about 2,600 BC. The name Piraeus roughly means "the place over the passage". In very early antiquity Piraeus was a rocky island (the settlement of Munychia-the present Kastella) connected to the mainland by a low-lying stretch of land that was flooded with sea water most of the year and was used as a salt field whenever it dried up. Consequently it was called the "Halipedon" (salt field) and its muddy soil made it a tricky passage. The area was increasingly silted and flooding ceased, and by early classical times the land passage was made safe. It was then that Piraeus assumed its importance as a deep water harbor, and the older, shallow Phaleron harbor fell into gradual disuse.

Themistocles was the first to urge the Athenians to take advantage of these harbours, instead of using the sandy bay of Phaleron. Foreseeing a new attack by the Persians -after the Battle of Marathon- he built large fortification works and turned Piraeus into a military harbor in 493 BC. The shipyards that were created then, built the mighty Athenian fleet, which distinguished itself at the Battle of Salamis.

In 460 BC the fortifications were completed by Kimon and Pericles when Piraeus was connected with Athens by the Long Walls. The original town of Piraeus was planned by the architect Hippodamus of Miletus in the famous grid system that he devised, probably in the time of Pericles. The main agora was...