Walk the Wall Athens: An Experiential Walk in the City

Abstract

Athens is a historic capital widely known for its legacy left to Western civilization and its publicly recognized and well-studied monuments of world heritage. But what do we really know about the Athenian antiquities that have been integrated into the city’s modern canvas? In how many ways can the urban landscape of Athens be re-introduced to the modern traveler? Walk the Wall Athens is a bilingual mobile application that allows the user to wander, literally and metaphorically, through the streets of Athens in order to explore the traces of the Themistoclean city wall and to recover this important monument from oblivion. Just as the ancient city wall surrounds Athens as a historical chain that crosses all the neighbourhoods of the modern city’s historical centre, the route provided by the interactive map of the application introduces the visitor to the layout of the modern Athenian metropolis. Through a walk on the remains of the ancient fortification, the application Walk the Wall Athens attempts to spark the interest and excite the curiosity of the Athenian traveller of the 21st century, introducing him to a journey of 2,500 years of history.

Keywords

• audio walk
• city wall
• cultural heritage
• digital archaeology
• urban history.