The slopes of the Acropolis were home to several sanctuaries that played a vital role in the religious lives of the ancient Athenians. Some of these places, especially on the South Slope, received monumental, architectural embellishments (for example, the sanctuary and theater of Dionyssos, or the sanctuary of Asklepios). But many shrines on the slopes were much simpler in nature and were places where divinities of nature, fertility, and healing were worshiped on a less monumental and more personal level.
Off Apostolou Pavlou pedestrian street, and on the lower slopes of the Pnyx, just beyond the sanctuary of Pan, the visitor can see the so-called Fountain of Pnyx. It is a rock-carved cistern collecting and storing water for the City of Athens from springs of a higher ground through a subterranean pipe, consisting of a large basin and several offshoots, dated to 6th c. BC. The chamber is covered with a Roman mosaic floor. German archaeologist Doerpfeld asserts it to be the famous "Enneakrounos" (Fountain with nine spouts) of Peisistratos. The visitor may also see traces of the concrete that was used to seal the chamber during WWII to save valuable antiquities from the looting German army.
