DESCRIPTION
INFORMATION
PHOTOGALLERY
 
 
About one kilometer east of the entrance to the Sanctuary of Demeter in Eleusis, at the point where the Sacred Way met the riverbed of the Eleusinian Kifissos, an ancient bridge is preserved in an impressively fine state. With a total length of 50 meters and width of 5.3 meters, it consists of a central section?the bridge proper?30 meters in length, and two sloping approaches on either side, each 10 meters in length. The bridge proper consisted of four arched openings, with the two outer arches being narrower than the two inner ones.

At the point where the bridge was constructed, the riverbed has been filled in with large rectangular stone blocks.

The bridge, which is of hard Piraeus limestone, is a superb example of Roman bridge-building. On the basis of written sources it has been dated to the Hadrianic age, and more specifically linked with the year in which the emperor was initiated into the Eleusinian mysteries (125 A.D.).
Author
K. Papangeli