Athens, today the capital and largest city of Greece, dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years.

Classical Athens is a powerful city-state.

A center for the arts, learning and philosophy, home of Plato's Academy and Aristotle's Lyceum, it is widely referred to as the cradle of Western civilization and the birthplace of democracy, largely due to the impact of its cultural and political achievements during the 5th and 4th centuries BCE on the rest of the then known European continent.