The Beulé Gate is a fortified gate, constructed in the Roman period, leading to the Propylaia of the Acropolis of Athens. It was constructed almost entirely from spolia taken from the Choragic Monument of Nikias, a monument built in the fourth century BCE and demolished between the second and fourth centuries CE. The dedicatory inscription from Nicias' monument is still visible in the entablature of the Beulé Gate. The gate was integrated into the Post-Herulian Wall, a late Roman fortification which reinforced the Acropolis as a military stronghold in the years following the city's sack by the Germanic Heruli people in 267. Its construction marked the beginning of a new phase in the Acropolis' use, in which it came to be seen more as a potential defensive position than in the religious terms that had marked its use in the Classical period. During the medieval period, the gate was further fortified and closed off, before being built over with a bastion in Ottoman times. The monument was discovered by the French archaeologist Charles Ernest Beulé in 1852, and excavated between 1852 and 1853. Its discovery was greeted enthusiastically in France among the scholarly community and the press, though archaeologists and Greek commentators criticised the aggressive means by which Beulé had carried out the excavation. In modern times, the gate has served primarily as an exit for tourists from the Acropolis. Description The Beulé Gate is situated at the bottom of the monumental staircase which, by the Roman period, led to the Proplyaia approximately to the east. It consists of two pylon-like towers, which project around from the structure. These towers are in turn joined by walls to the terraces above, including that of the Temple of Athena Nike. The gateway itself is set into a marble wall and aligned with the main route through the Propylaia. The gate is almost in width, with a central part around in both height and width. The gateway itself is high and in width at its base. The area above the central doorway is decorated in the Doric order, and consists of an architrave in Pentelic marble, topped with metopes made from tufa and marble triglyphs. Above the metopes and triglyphs is a cornice with mutules, itself topped with an attic. Date The gate's discoverer, Charles Ernest Beulé, erroneously believed the gate to have been the original entrance to the Acropolis. Later research, beginning