The term designates since antiquity the inland portion of the Attic peninsula. The term acquired a technical meaning with the reforms of
Cleisthenes in , when each of the ten
Attic tribes was in territory composed of three zones (
trittyes), urban (
asty, the main city of Athens), interior (
mesogeia) and coastal (
paralia). In the
Classical period, the
mesogeia comprised about 47 settlements (
demoi). In modern usage, the term refers to the central portion of
East Attica, separated from the Athens basin by
Mount Hymettus, and delineated to the north by
Mount Penteli and to the south by the mountains of south Attica (Merenta, ,
Laureotic Olympus). To the east the Mesogeia reaches the
Aegean Sea at the
Petalioi Gulf, but is separated from the actual coastline by a line of low hills. In the late
Middle Ages, the area was the site of
Albanian (
Arvanite) settlement, as can be seen from toponyms such as
Spata or
Liopesi. Before the 2011
Kallikratis reform, the area comprised the municipalities of
Gerakas,
Glyka Nera,
Anthousa,
Pallini,
Paiania,
Pikermi, Spata,
Artemida, Rafina,
Markopoulo Mesogaias,
Keratea,
Koropi,
Kalyvia Thorikou,
Vari,
Kouvaras, and
Voula. Its main settlement is Spata, and its main harbour is Rafina. The
Athens International Airport is also located near Spata. ==Maps==