Pelasgic wall, Ancient defensive wall on the Acropolis, Athens, Greece

The Pelasgic wall runs along the western slope of the Acropolis as a defensive structure built from large stone blocks fitted together without mortar. Sections of this wall remain visible today near the Propylaia entrance, showing how it was constructed during the Mycenaean period.

Archaeological evidence dates the wall's construction to between 1300 and 1200 BC, when the Acropolis summit was levelled and encircled by a fortification 6 m thick, built in Cyclopean masonry with a spring inside a rock cleft on the north side. The Parian Chronicle records that the Athenians expelled the Peisistratids from the "Pelasgikon teichos". Herodotus relates that the Pelasgians were given land below Hymettus in return for the wall.

Ancient writers linked the wall to the Pelasgians, the pre-Greek people credited with levelling the Acropolis summit. Thucydides and Aristophanes called the western foot of the rock "Pelargikon", stork wall or place, a pun on the older name. Herodotus says the land below Hymettus was given to the Pelasgians in return for the wall.

The wall sections are best viewed from the base of the Acropolis slope, especially near the Propylaia entrance where fragments are most visible. Plan to spend time walking around this area to notice the different construction layers and how they fit together.

Thucydides and Aristophanes called the wall "Pelargikon", meaning "stork wall or place", a pun on the similar-sounding Pelasgikon. The name referred to the line of walls at the western foot of the Acropolis, not the summit fortification.