Modern Description:
South of the Kako Rhevma Hymettus again rises and spreads into a broad, reasonably level crest. On this level area near its northern end is a small fortified enclosure (about 1400 m. west southwest of the peak) The plan of the fortification is roughly trapezoidal; it extends about 47 m. eastwest and 36 to 47 m. north-south. The outer walls are built of field stones without mud or other binder; stones of moderate size were used in the two faces, between which is a fill of slightly smaller stones. The thickness is regularly 2.35 m. The walls are now preserved to only about 1.30 m. high at their highest. ...Along the outer face of the northern wall are three piles of rubble which appear to be the remains of small towers.78 It seemed likely that the two eastern towers flanked a gateway, ca. 1.60 m. wide, though its faces or jambs are now destroyed. A series of rooms lines the inner faces of the enclosure walls. These are formed by rubble walls about 1 m. thick built roughly parallel to the defense walls and at a distance of 2.50 to 3.50 m. from them. Cross walls, also 1 m. thick, divide the complex into individual rooms.79 These are now in a very ruined condition, so that it is impossible to be sure exactly how many rooms originally existed. There is no trace of building in the open center of the enclosure, and the rough state of the rocky ground makes it virtually certain that no free-standing buildings ever existed. Evidence for the date of this fortification is, unfortunately, very limited. Careful 78 After careful searching we distinguished what seemed to be parts of the original faces of these towers, and on this basis the plans were drawn; there is, however, serious possibility of error due to the very ruined state of the remains. Searches in the enclosure by the writer on two occasions and by others on other occasions have produced no pottery save one or two small fragments of coarse, undatable cooking pots. There are, however, numerous fragments of black- and red-glazed Laconian-type roof tiles in all parts of the enclosure; they were especially numerous in the room at the southeast corner where a shepherd had removed much of the fallen rubble to make himself a shelter. ... The site does, however, command an excellent view over the Athenian plain; It may therefore be suggested that the Hymettos Camp served as a lookout and signaling post. If this was the purpose of the fortification, it may further be suggested that the lookout was not an Athenian one, but rather that of a force which did not control the city. (MCCREDIE)
Trismegistos Geo: 15653
Info: McCredie, Fortified Military Camps
James R. McCredie, Fortified Military Camps in Attica, Hesperia Supplement 11, 1966,