Piraeus

Piraeus (Greek: Πειραιάς Pireás, Ancient Greek: Πειραιεύς, Peiraieús) is a port city in the region of Attica, Greece. Piraeus is located within the Athens urban area, 12 kilometers (7 miles) southwest from its city center (municipality of Athens), and lies along the east coast of the Saronic Gulf.

Piraeus has a long recorded history, dating to ancient Greece. The city was largely developed in the early 5th century BC, when it was selected to serve as the port city of classical Athens and was transformed into a prototype harbour, concentrating all the import and transit trade of Athens. Consequently, it became the chief harbour of ancient Greece, but declined gradually after the 4th century AD, growing once more in the 19th century, especially after Athens' declaration as the capital of Greece. In the modern era, Piraeus is a large city, bustling with activity and an integral part of Athens, acting as home to the country's biggest harbour and bearing all the characteristics of a huge marine and commercial-industrial centre.

The port of Piraeus is the chief port in Greece, the largest passenger port in Europe and the third largest in the world, servicing about 20 million passengers annually. With a throughput of 1.4 million TEUs, Piraeus is placed among the top ten ports in container traffic in Europe and the top container port in the Eastern Mediterranean.

Olympic Games

The city hosted events in both the 1896 and 2004 Summer Olympics held in Athens.

Locations of Olympic Swimming Events in the Open Water

In the modern Olympic Games, the swimming events were held in open bodies of water that included the following:

• 1896 Athens Olympics (Games of the I Olympiad): Bay of Zea off the Piraeus coast, Aegean Sea, Greece
  
• 1900 Paris Olympics (Games of the III Olympiad): Seine River, Paris, France
  
• 1904 St. Louis Olympics (Games of the III Olympiad): Man-made pond near Skinker and Wydown Boulevards, St. Louis, Missouri, U.S.A.
  
• 1906 Athens Intercalated Games: Neo Phaliron Bay off the coast of Athens, Greece
• 2008 Beijing Olympics (Games of the XXIX Olympiad): Shunyi Olympic Rowing-Canoeing Park (顺义奥林匹克水上公园 or 順義奧林匹克水上公園 in Chinese), outside Beijing, China
  
• 2012 London Olympics (Games of the XXX Olympiad): Serpentine, London, UK
  
• 2016 Rio Olympics (Games of the XXXI Olympiad): Copacabana Beach, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
  
• 2020 Tokyo Olympics (Games of the XXXII Olympiad): Odaiba Marine Park in Tokyo Bay, Japan
  

External links

• IOC President Kirsty Coventry Is Quickly Making Her Mark
• Swim Starts In The Pool and Open Water Through The Ages
• Plan B For The Olympic 10K Marathon Swim
• Olympic 10K Marathon Swimming
• Boston Throws Swim Cap Into 2014 Olympic Ring
• Greek Olympic Déjà Vu In The Open Water
• World Open Water Swimming Association
• Open Water Swimming
• Deciding On The 2024 Olympics: Seine Or Santa Monica?
• Long Beach Wins LA Olympic Marathon Swimming Bid
• Using The Eiffel Tower As An Olympic Landmark