PEIRAEUS, or PIRAEUS (Gr. Hetpaceur)  , the port town of Athens, with which its history is inseparably connected . Pop . (1907), 67,982 . It consists of a rocky promontory, containing three natural harbours, a large one on the north-west which is still one of the chief commercial harbours of the Levant, and two smaller ones on the east, which were used chiefly for naval purposes . Themistocles was the first to urge the Athenians to take advantage of these harbours, instead of using the sandy bay of Phaleron; and the fortification of the Peiraeus was begun in 493 B.C . Later on it was connected with Athens by the Long Walls in 46o B.c . The town of Peiraeus was laid out by the architect Hippodamus of Miletus, probably in the time of Pericles . The promontory itself consisted of two parts—the hill of Munychia, and the projection of Acte; on the opposite side of the great harbour was the outwork of Eetioneia . The most stirring episode in the history of the Peiraeus is the seizure of Munychia by Thrasybulus and the exiles from Phyle, and the consequent destruction of the " 30 tyrants " in 404 B.C . The three chief arsenals of the Peiraeus were named Munychia, Zea and Cantharus, and they contained galley slips for 82, 196 and 94 ships respectively in the 4th century B.C . 1 See under AT11Exs . Also Angelopoulos, H€pl IIetpau"us a al ) rwv Uµevwv a roi (Athens, 1898) .