Sparta

The city area was situated on the eastern foothills of the Taygetos Mountains, close to the right bank of the river Eurotas and was no longer populated in the Middle Ages. A new foundation took place in 1834, see Sparta (municipality).

On both sides of the river Eurotas stretches a fertile plain flanked by two mountain ranges, Taygetos to the west and Parnon to the east. In this river basin Sparta grew out of a few villages. The location of Sparta offered a natural protection by the mountains which surrounded the river valley. However, only a small area of about 500 km² could be used for agriculture.

The city consisted of four spacious, garden-rich quarters, which together had a circumference of about nine kilometers. Unlike Athens, Sparta did not commune its conquered territories, which is why the Spartan population remained relatively small compared to Athens. It is estimated that in 600 B.C. there were about 40,000 to 50,000 people living in the city itself.

Until Hellenistic times, the city had no continuous walls, as the feared army was able to keep all enemies away; only the tyrant Nabis laid a ring of walls, which, although soon destroyed by the Achaians, was restored by order of the Romans and renewed as late as early Byzantine times. Of the individual quarters (Komen) Pitana in the northeast is mentioned as the most beautiful. Here was the Agora with the assembly buildings of the Gerusia and the Ephors, the Persian Hall built by the Persian spoils, and in Roman times the great white marble-clad theatre, of which some remains still survive.

Sparta did not have a high acropolis. This name was given to the hill of the city, on the top of which stood the temple of Athena Chalkioikos, the city deity of Sparta. The city had, besides those mentioned, numerous other temples and monuments which Pausanias mentions, the location of some of which can still be traced today. Remains of Roman baths are to the north-west and south-east of the theatre, and remains of an ancient bridge over the Eurotas on the present road to Argos and Tegea. Other squares were located to the west of the city: on the road to Messene were the Dromos with two gymnasia and the Platanistas square, planted with plane trees, where the young men used to wrestle.

The construction of the mountain fortress and residential city of Mystras to its west led to the desolation of the ancient city.