Palaces and acropoleis were essentially elite residential compounds. They generally extended horizontally as opposed to the towering Maya pyramids, and often had restricted access. Some structures in Maya acropoleis supported roof combs. Rooms often had stone benches, used for sleeping, and holes indicate where curtains once hung.
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There are also two ancient acropoleis (Paliocastro acropolis and Oga acropolis) and many ancient farm sites. The ancient writers Ovid, Strabo and Pausanias described the historic eruption of the volcano dome near the village of Kameni Chora in the northwestern part of the Methana peninsula. Pausanias also described hot springs after the eruption. Later there were many new buildings and sanctuaries founded near the village Vathy, at the Paliocastro hill and around it.
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The early Iron Age site, first excavated in 1917, was most prosperous in the 8th-6th centuries BC; later it became a minor satellite of Knossos and continued to be occupied into the Byzantine period. It comprises two acropoleis with an Archaic-period agora between them. Almost the whole of the city and its necropolis have been excavated, confirming that this is a post- Minoan Greek habitation; its inscriptions are in Dorian dialect. Traces of fortifications have been discovered.
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Yaxha was more densely occupied than most other Maya cities.Kelly 1996, p. 114. The site has more than 500 structures, including about 40 stelae, 13 Altars, 9 temple pyramids, 2 Mesoamerican ballcourts, and a network of sacbeob (causeways) that connect the central, northern (Maler), and eastern 'acropoleis', and the Lake causeway that was the main entrance in the past. The top of Temple 216 (restored) provides a view of the two lakes on one side and the jungle and the stepped-pyramids on the other.
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The walled gates of Acrocorinth, as rebuilt by the Venetians. Acrocorinth, looking north towards the Gulf of Corinth. Acrocorinth (), "Upper Corinth", the acropolis of ancient Corinth, is a monolithic rock overseeing the ancient city of Corinth, Greece. In the estimation of George Forrest, “It is the most impressive of the acropoleis of mainland Greece.” With its secure water supply, Acrocorinth's fortress was repeatedly used as a last line of defense in southern Greece because it commanded the Isthmus of Corinth, repelling foes from entry by land into the Peloponnese peninsula.
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The Acropolis of Athens An acropolis (Ancient Greek: ἀκρόπολις, akropolis; from akros (άκρος) or akron (άκρον), "highest, topmost, outermost" and polis (πόλις), "city"; plural in English: acropoles, acropoleis or acropolises), , . was an ancient Greece settlement, especially a citadel, built upon an area of elevated ground—frequently a hill with precipitous sides, chosen for purposes of defense. Acropolises also had a function of a religious sanctuary with sacred springs highlighting its religious significance. Acropolises became the nuclei of large cities of classical antiquity, such as ancient Athens, and for this reason they are sometimes prominent landmarks in modern cities with ancient pasts, such as modern Athens.
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Kritsa has an extensive historic record with evidence of occupation as early as the second millennium BC. Near the village, three km to the north, are the ruins of the ancient Greek city Lato which was noted as one of the most powerful Dorian towns in Crete, with two acropoleis. The oldest settlement in the Kritsa area, on the steep rocky hill south of the village named Kastellos, dates back to the 12–13th century BC (Late Minoan IIIC). Lato is thought to may have been founded when Kastellos was abandoned.Barbara J. Hayden, Archaiologikon Mouseion He-rakleiou (2005) Reports on the Vrokastro Area, Eastern Crete, University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology – p.
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