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Piraeus was identified as Athens' ideal port by the statesman Themistocles around 493 BC, who persuaded the Athenians to relocate their harbor from the exposed beach at Phalerum to three natural protected basins here. By the height of Athenian power in the 5th century BC, the Long Walls connected Piraeus directly to Athens, and the commercial and military harbor sustained the Athenian empire. The city was devastated by Sulla in 86 BC and did not fully recover as an independent entity until the 19th century, when the new Greek state developed it again as a major Mediterranean port.

Today Piraeus handles more passengers than any other port in Europe, with the Saronic Gulf ferries and Aegean island routes boarding from terminals that sit directly below ancient walls.

The Mikrolimano, one of the three natural harbors, retains the scale of a village and is ringed with seafood restaurants whose tables extend to the water's edge. The Archaeological Museum holds bronzes and sculptures including a 4th-century BC Apollo of exceptional quality, and the working port around it still moves the commercial traffic that has defined this place for two and a half thousand years.