William Martin Leake (1777–1860) was a British military officer and classical scholar specialising in reconstructing the topography of ancient cities. He was a founding member of the Royal Geographical Society and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1815. After his retirement in 1815 he devoted the rest of his life to topographical and classical studies. First published in 1821, this pioneering volume contains Leake's reconstruction of ancient Athens. Leake analyses and compares ancient descriptions of the city with the archaeological remains as they existed at the time of publication, identifying ancient structures and suggesting where the remains of other buildings may be found by excavation. This book was regarded as authoritative for the structures of ancient Athens for most of the nineteenth century, with Leake's work being influential in shaping perceptions of classical archaeology and historical topography into the twentieth century.
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