Skaramagas (also spelled Skaramangas; ) is a port town in the western part of the

Athens Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...

agglomeration,

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

. It is part of the municipality of Haidari. It is known for its large

shipyard A shipyard, also called a dockyard or boatyard, is a place where ships are shipbuilding, built and repaired. These can be yachts, military vessels, cruise liners or other cargo or passenger ships. Compared to shipyards, which are sometimes m ...

. It took its name by the Chiot merchant Amvrosios Skaramagas.

Geography

Skaramagas is situated on the east coast of the Bay of Elefsina, a bay of the

Saronic Gulf The Saronic Gulf ( Greek: Σαρωνικός κόλπος, ''Saronikós kólpos'') or Gulf of Aegina in Greece is formed between the peninsulas of Attica and Argolis and forms part of the Aegean Sea. It defines the eastern side of the isthmus of C ...

. The Aigaleo mountain to the east separates it from the rest of Athens. Skaramagas is 5 km west of Chaidari town centre, 6 km south of

Aspropyrgos Aspropyrgos (, ) is a western suburb, in the Athens metropolitan area and a municipality in the West Attica regional unit in the Thriasio Plain, Attica, Greece. The municipality had a population of 31,381 at the 2021 census. It has an area of 1 ...

, 7 km southeast of

Elefsina Elefsina () or Eleusis ( ; ) is a suburban city and municipality in Athens metropolitan area. It belongs to West Attica regional unit of Greece. It is located in the Thriasio Plain, at the northernmost end of the Saronic Gulf. North of Elefsina ...

, and 11 km west of Athens city centre.

Greek National Road 8 Greek National Road 8 (, abbreviated as EO8, common name: old Athens-Patras national road) is a single carriageway with at-grade intersections in the Attica, Peloponnese and West Greece regions. It connects Athens with the cities of Corinth and ...

(the old Athens - Corinth - Patras road) passes through Skaramagas.

Shipyard

Since 1937 Skaramagas harbour has been home to a shipyard of the

Hellenic Navy The Hellenic Navy (HN; , abbreviated ΠΝ) is the Navy, naval force of Greece, part of the Hellenic Armed Forces. The modern Greek navy historically hails from the naval forces of various Aegean Islands, which fought in the Greek War of Independ ...

. After destruction in World War II, it was refounded as a commercial shipyard in 1957, the Hellenic Shipyards Co. In 2002, the port became entirely owned by a German group of investors under the industrial leadership of

Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft GmbH (often abbreviated HDW) is a German shipbuilding company, headquartered in Kiel. It is part of the ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems (TKMS) group, owned by ThyssenKrupp. The Howaldtswerke shipyard was founded in Kiel i ...

, which became a subsidiary of

ThyssenKrupp ThyssenKrupp AG (, ; stylized as thyssenkrupp) is a German industrial engineering and steel production multinational conglomerate. It resulted from the 1999 merger of Thyssen AG and Krupp and has its operational headquarters in Duisburg and E ...

in 2005.The Sale of the Shipyard to the Germans
- Ta Nea In 1973, the Skaramagas harbour was the scene of an experiment carried out by Greek scientist Ioannis Sakkas, to test whether or not it was possible for

Archimedes Archimedes of Syracuse ( ; ) was an Ancient Greece, Ancient Greek Greek mathematics, mathematician, physicist, engineer, astronomer, and Invention, inventor from the ancient city of Syracuse, Sicily, Syracuse in History of Greek and Hellenis ...

to use focused sunlight as a "heat ray" to burn Roman ships during the Siege of Syracuse (214–212 BC). This event is mentioned in ancient accounts but often doubted by modern historians. In the 1973 experiment at Skaramagas harbour, 70 mirrors with a copper coating, such as were available in Archimedes' time, did focus enough sunlight to set on fire a plywood of a Roman warship at a distance of around .

Historical population

References

External links

Official website of Municipality of Chaidari
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Hellenic Shipyards Co.
Populated places in West Athens (regional unit)