Episode 1. UP ABOVE AND DOWN BELOW
Posted on: 20-05-2021

From a little-known hill to a hidden tunnel.

Sofka introduces the series and herself: a British writer and one-time anthropologist, she’s an adopted Greek with a Russian name.

We visit an unfamiliar hill – the Tourkovounia. Former US diplomat and archaeologist Brady Kiesling gives a sense of Athens’ geography –  an urban sprawl surrounded by mountains and sea.

Sofka goes down below for a taste of the remarkable riches lying underground and pays her respects to the city’s most famous skeleton.

George Sachinis – a community artist and Water Board employee, leads us inside an aqueduct tunnel built by the Emperor Hadrian, which is still functioning after 2,000 years.

 

With Brady Kiesling on the Tourkovounia

 

Vsiting Athens’s most famous skeleton – “a memorial to the unknown Athenian woman”

 

With George Sachinis of Urban Dig in the 19th century reservoir at Dexameni Square in Kolonaki

 

With George Sachinis inside Hadrian’s aqueduct