Ship-Sheds

What I can see

In ancient Athens, ships were periodically moved out of the water to be stored in roofed slips or shipsheds. The best surviving shipsheds can be found in what is today known as Passalimani. Others are located at the port of Piraeus and Mikrolimano. They consist of sloped shelves, built or carved, and colonnades, which kept the shipsheds separate and supported the single gable roof. At the centre of each shelf, grooves were opened to allow ushering in the back of the keel. Nowadays, due to the geological depression in the region of Attica, rising sea levels have covered the bulk of the shipsheds. Parts are still visible under the water in Pasalimani or in the basements of buildings that were built during the dictatorship and the 1990s. Column parts are sometimes visible on adjacent sidewalks.

What I can't see

According to a 4^th century BC inscription, 196 shipsheds were located on this spot (ancient Zea) and stored 372 triremes. Their construction during the 5^th century BC cost an astronomical sum for the time, which exceeded 1,000 talents. Each shipshed or slip was named after the ship it housed. Triremes had a length of 32 to 35 metres and were stored separately, whereas two smaller vessels could fit in a single shed. Recent studies have shown that shipsheds were 45 to 50 metres long, with some reaching 80 metres in order to house two triremes positioned antithetically. It is possible that the ships that took part in the naval battle of Salamis were kept in the shipsheds of Zea and Mounichia.

Info

• Address: Moutsopoulou coast

Bibliography