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Tunnel Canceled
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Volume 51 Number 2, March/April 1998
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by Nikos Axarlis
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Under pressure from a coalition of scholarly organizations, the Greek cabinet has decided to halt construction of a subway tunnel under the Kerameikos cemetery, ancient Athens' most important burial ground. Until recently, the Greek government was pressing for test borings to gauge whether the ground beneath the site was secure enough for the tunnel. The Association of Greek Archaeologists said that the action vindicated its opposition to the destruction of antiquities there. The group had criticized the government when more than 800 graves were destroyed during construction of the Kerameikos station in 1996 (see "Development Juggernaut," November/December 1997). Delays related to the controversy have cost the government billions of drachmas and stalled by three years construction of a subway line linking downtown with neighborhoods to the west.
© 1998 by the Archaeological Institute of America
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