The River serves both as a dreamy Arcadia and a live testimony of the human abuse of nature.

Kifissos river runs throughout Athens and is the city’s longest body of water, springing from Penteli and Parnitha mountains. In Roman times the first aqueduct was constructed along its banks and over time Kifissos became a natural system of draining rainwater from the city.

In the middle of the 20th century, as Athens was expanding, the river transformed drastically, invaded by highways, sewer systems and industries illegally established along its banks.

Today, the river runs underneath, or adjacent to, all of the city’s major motorways, hidden and repressed by layers of concrete.

To the north of Athens it bursts back into view; Vegetation is wild, with almost no signs of urbanism. There, the river survives stubbornly and the landscape appears again pristine, unchanged by the passing of time.

Courtesy of Can Christina Androulidaki Gallery

All images ©Nikos Markou