The content of the book is simple but at the same time brilliant: even now, you rarely find this kind of general handbooks. The author describes each one of the main features of the Greek polis/city: acropolis, agora, temple, stoa, theatre, gymnasium, stadium, fountain house... they are all there. He explains them neatly though it seems that even in his abstract definitions, he has a specific acropolis, agora, temple etc. etc. in his mind. Athens looms large in his work- no wonder, he later wrote the Stones of Athens- and unfortunately, Athens is the most atypical city in the Greek world. Data on the Royal stoa of Athens- then (1950's) confused with the Stoa of Zeus Liberator- must be corrected together with the misleading pan-Minoan interpretation of the Mycenean culture.