Pnyx

niks, a place of public assembly in ancient Athens. It occupied an open-air terrace leveled off on the slope of a hill, southwest of the Acropolis. In shape, it was a sector of a circle--to use a homely illustration, about two-fifths of a round pie--with the wide apex pointing toward the center of the hill. A semicircular retaining wall upheld the outer boundary. The apex was cut down about thirteen feet into the solid rock. A cube of rock left at the apex and ascended by three steps from either side served as a platform for public speakers. When Demosthenes or some other famous orator ascended the bema, as it was called, to address the populace, he faced a surging mass of humanity 212 feet deep, extending 197 feet to the right and left. The bema was originally the lowest point of the pnyx. During the centuries that have passed many of the huge stone blocks of the retaining wall have been removed or have slid down hill, giving the old arena an outward slope.