Athens' buried rivers: stream favoured by Plato could see light of day

The Greek capital entombed its major rivers in concrete during its car-centred postwar development. Now the most storied of them, Ilisos, could be set free

Photographs by Christian Sinibaldi

Walking through the densely built metropolis of Athens, few visitors or even locals realise the Greek capital was once crisscrossed by three major rivers, not to mention some 700 smaller streams that flowed into them.

The Kifisos, the Iridanos and the Ilisos were buried under concrete during the city's postwar car-centred development, in what daily newspaper Kathimerini has labelled "a crime against the city".