Greek Elevsís
Town, with ruins of an ancient city, eastern Greece.
Famous as the site of the Eleusinian Mysteries , it is about 14 mi (23 km) west of Athens. It was independent until the 7th century BC, when Athens annexed the city and made the Eleusinian Mysteries a major Athenian religious festival. The Gothic leader Alaric destroyed Eleusis in AD 395. Deserted until the 18th century, it was revived as the modern town of Eleusis (Greek Lepsina), now a suburb of Athens. Some of the ruins have been excavated, including the Hall of Initiation, which dates back some 3,000 years to late Mycenaean times.