Athens

Although Athens covers a huge area, the major landmarks of the ancient Greek, Roman, and Byzantine periods are close to the modern city center. You can easily walk from the Acropolis to many other key sites, taking time to browse in shops and relax in cafés and tavernas along the way. From many quarters of the city you can glimpse the Acropolis looming above the horizon, but only by actually climbing that rocky precipice can you feel its power. The Acropolis and Filopappou, two verdant hills sitting side by side; the ancient Agora (marketplace); and Kerameikos, the first cemetery, form the core of ancient and Roman Athens. Along the Unification of Archaeological Sites promenade, you can follow stone-paved, tree-lined walkways from site to site, undisturbed by traffic. Cars have also been banned or reduced in other streets in the historical center. In the National Archaeological Museum, vast numbers of artifacts illustrate the many millennia of Greek civilization; smaller museums such as the Museum of Cycladic Art and the Byzantine and Christian Museum beautifully and elaborately illuminate the history of particular regions or periods.

Athens may seem like one huge city, but it is really a conglomeration of neighborhoods with distinctive characters. The Eastern influences that prevailed during the 400-year rule of the Ottoman Empire are still evident in Monastiraki. On the northern slope of the Acropolis, stroll through Plaka to get the flavor of the 19th century's gracious lifestyle. The narrow lanes of Anafiotika thread past tiny churches and small color-washed houses recalling a Cycladic island village. Vestiges of the older city are everywhere: crumbling stairways lined with festive tavernas, occasionally a court garden enclosed within high walls and filled with magnolia trees, ancient ruins scattered in sun-blasted corners.

Makriyianni and Koukaki are prime real estate, the latter recently voted sixth-best neighborhood in the world by Airbnb. Formerly run-down old quarters, such as Kerameikos, Gazi-Kerameikos, and Psirri, popular nightlife areas filled with bars and mezedopoleio, have undergone some gentrification, although they retain much of their post-industrial edge. The newly trendy area around Syntagma Square, including the buzzing, gay-friendly café scene at Monastiraki's Ayias Irinis Square, and bleak, noisy Omonia Square, form the commercial heart of the city. Athens is distinctly European, having been designed by the court architects of King Otto, a Bavarian, in the 19th century. The chic shops and bistros of ritzy Kolonaki nestle at the foot of Mt. Lycabettus, Athens's highest hill (909 feet), with a man-made forest. Each of the city's outlying suburbs has a distinctive character: Pangrati, Ambelokipi, and Ilisia are more residential in nature, densely populated, with some lively nightlife hotspots and star attractions like the Panathenaic Stadium and the Athens Concert Hall (Megaron Mousikis).

Just beyond the southern edge of the city is Piraeus, a bustling port city of waterside fish tavernas and Saronic Gulf views that is still connected to Central Athens by metro. And beyond Athens proper, in Attica to the south and southeast, lie Glyfada, Voula, and Vouliagmeni, with their sandy beaches, seaside bars, and lively summer nightlife.

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  • 1. Acropolis

    Acropolis

    You don't have to look far in Athens to encounter perfection. Towering above all—both physically and spiritually—stands the Acropolis, a millennia-old survivor. The Greek term Akropolis means High City, and today's traveler who climbs this table-like hill is paying tribute to the prime source of Western civilization. As of September 2020, this amazing monument has been lit up in a new way by the Onassis Cultural Center in collaboration with the Greek state; using 690 LED lights, every monument on the Acropolis can now be relished in a new light. Most of the notable structures on this flat-top limestone outcrop, 512 feet high, were built from 461 to 429 BC, when the intellectual and artistic life of Athens flowered under the influence of the Athenian statesman Pericles. Since then, the buildings of the Acropolis have undergone transformations into, at various times, a Florentine palace, an Islamic mosque, and a Turkish harem. They have also weathered the hazards of wars, right up to 1944, when British paratroopers positioned their bazookas between the Parthenon's columns. Today, the Erechtheion temple has been completely restored, and conservation work on the Parthenon is ongoing, focusing now on the western side. With most of the major restoration work now completed, a visit to the Acropolis evokes the spirit of the ancient heroes and gods who were once worshipped here. The sight of the Parthenon—the Panathenaic temple at the crest of this ieros vrachos (sacred rock)—has the power to stir the heart as few other ancient relics do. The walk through the Acropolis takes about four hours, depending on the crowds, including an hour spent in the New Acropolis Museum. In general, the earlier you start out the better—in summer the heat is blistering by noon and the light's reflection off the rock and marble ruins is almost blinding. Remember to bring water, sunscreen, nonslip footwear, and a hat to protect yourself from the sun. An alternative, in summer, is to visit after 5 pm, when the light is best for taking photographs. The two hours before sunset, when the fabled violet light occasionally spreads from the crest of Mt. Hymettus and embraces the Acropolis, is an ideal time to visit in any season. After dark the hill is spectacularly floodlighted, creating a scene visible from many parts of the capital. You enter the Acropolis complex through the Beulé Gate, a late-Roman structure named for the French archaeologist who discovered the gate in 1852. Before Roman times, the entrance to the Acropolis was a steep ramp below the Temple of Athena Nike that was used every fourth year for the Panathenaic procession, a spectacle that honored Athena's remarkable birth (she sprang from the head of her father, Zeus). When you enter the gate, ask for the free, information-packed bilingual (in English and Greek) pamphlet guide. At the loftiest point of the Acropolis stands the Parthenon, the architectural masterpiece conceived by Pericles and executed between 447 and 438 BC. It not only raised the bar in terms of sheer size, but also in the perfection of its proportions. Dedicated to the goddess Athena (the name comes from the Athena Parthenos, the virgin Athena), the Parthenon served primarily as the treasury of the Delian League, an ancient alliance of cities formed to defeat the Persian incursion. In fact, the Parthenon was built as much to honor the city's power as to venerate the goddess. After the Persian army sacked Athens in 480–479 BC, the city-state banded with Sparta, and together they routed the Persians by 449 BC. To proclaim its hegemony over all Greece, Athens then set about constructing its Acropolis, ending a 30-year building moratorium. Once you pass through the Beulé Gate you will find the Temple of Athena Nike. Designed by Kallikrates, the mini-temple was built in 427–424 BC to celebrate peace with Persia. The bas-reliefs on the surrounding parapet depict the Victories leading heifers to be sacrificed. Past the temple, the imposing Propylaea structure was designed to instill the proper reverence in worshippers as they crossed from the temporal world into the spiritual world of the sanctuary, for this was the main function of the Acropolis. The Propylaea was intended to have been the same size as the Parthenon, and thus the grandest secular building in Greece, but construction was suspended during the Peloponnesian War, and it was never finished. The structure shows the first use of the Attic style, which combines both Doric and Ionic columns. The building's slender Ionic columns had elegant capitals, some of which have been restored along with a section of the famed paneled ceiling, originally decorated with gold, eight-pointed stars on a blue background. Adjacent to the Pinakotheke, or art gallery (which has paintings of scenes from Homer's epics and mythological tableaux), the south wing is a decorative portico (row of columns). The view from the inner porch of the Propylaea is stunning: the Parthenon is suddenly revealed in its full glory, framed by the columns. If the Parthenon is the masterpiece of Doric architecture, the Erechtheion is undoubtedly the prime exemplar of the more graceful Ionic order. A considerably smaller structure than the Parthenon, it outmatches, for sheer elegance and refinement of design, all other buildings of the Greco-Roman world. For the populace, the Erechtheion, completed in 406 BC, remained Athena's holiest shrine, for legend has it that Poseidon plunged his trident into the rock on this spot, dramatically producing a spring of water, while Athena created a simple olive tree, whose produce remains a main staple of Greek society. A panel of judges declared the goddess the winner, and the city was named Athena. The most delightful feature is the south portico, known as the Caryatid Porch. It is supported on the heads of six maidens (caryatids) wearing delicately draped Ionian garments. What you see at the site today are copies; the originals are in the New Acropolis Museum. Most people take the metro to the Acropolis station, where the Acropolis Museum is just across the main exit. They then follow the Dionyssiou Aeropagitou, the pedestrianized street that traces the foothill of the Acropolis to its entrance at the Beulé Gate. Another entrance is along the rock's northern face via the pretty Peripatos, a paved path from the Plaka district. The summit of the Acropolis can also now be reached by people with disabilities via an elevator. Don't throw away your Acropolis ticket after your tour. It will get you into all the other sites in the Unification of Archaeological Sites for five days—at no extra cost. Guides to the Acropolis are quite informative and will also help kids understand the site better.

    Athens, Attica, 11742, Greece
    210-321–4172-ticket information

    Sight Details

    €20 Acropolis and Theater of Dionysus; €30 joint ticket for all Unification of Archaeological Sites (valid for 5 days)
  • 2. Acropolis Museum

    Acropolis

    Designed by the celebrated Swiss architect Bernard Tschumi in collaboration with Greek architect Michalis Fotiadis, the Acropolis Museum made world headlines when it opened in June 2009. If some buildings define an entire city in a particular era, Athens's monumental museum boldly sets the tone of Greece's modern aspirations. Occupying a large plot of the city's most prized real estate, the Acropolis Museum nods to the fabled ancient hill above it but speaks—thanks to a building that looks spectacular from its every angle—in a contemporary architectural language. The museum drew 90,000 visitors in its first month and proved it is spacious enough to accommodate such crowds (a whopping 14½ million visitors had entered the doors of the ingenious, airy structure by the end of its first decade). Unlike its crammed, dusty predecessor, there is lots of elbow room, from the museum's olive tree–dotted grounds to its prized, top-floor Parthenon Gallery. Regal glass walkways, very high ceilings, and panoramic views are all part of the experience. In the five-level museum, every shade of marble is on display and bathed in abundant, UV-safe natural light. Visitors pass into the museum through a broad entrance and move ever upward. The ground-floor exhibit, "The Acropolis Slopes," features objects found in the sanctuaries and settlements around the Acropolis—a highlight is the collection of theatrical masks and vases from the sanctuary of the matrimonial deity Nymphe. The next floor is devoted to the Archaic period (650 BC–480 BC), with rows of precious statues mounted for 360-degree viewing. The floor includes sculptural figures from the Hekatompedon—the temple that may have predated the classical Parthenon—such as the noted group of stone lions gorging on a bull from 570 BC. The legendary five Caryatids (or Korai)—the female figures supporting the Acropolis's Erectheion building—symbolically leave a space for their sister, who resides in London's British Museum. The second floor is devoted to the terrace and a restaurant/coffee shop with a wonderful view of the Acropolis, which starts by serving a traditional Greek breakfast every day except Monday, before moving on to more delicious Greek dishes (every Friday the restaurant remains open until midnight). Drifting into the top-floor atrium, the visitor can watch a video on the Parthenon before entering the star gallery devoted to the temple's Pentelic marble decorations, many of which depict a grand procession in the goddess Athena's honor. Frieze pieces (originals and copies), metopes, and pediments are all laid out in their original orientation. This is made remarkably apparent because the gallery consists of a magnificent, rectangle-shaped room tilted to align with the Parthenon itself. Floor-to-ceiling windows provide magnificent vistas of the temple just a few hundred feet away. Museum politics are unavoidable here. This gallery was designed—as Greek officials have made obvious—to hold the Parthenon Marbles in their entirety. This includes the sculptures Lord Elgin brought to London two centuries ago. Currently, 50 meters of the frieze are in Athens, 80 meters in London's British Museum, and another 30 meters scattered in museums around the world. The spectacular and sumptuous new museum challenges the British claim that there is no suitable home for the Parthenon treasures in Greece. Pointedly, the museum avoids replicas, as the top-floor gallery makes a point of highlighting the abundant missing original pieces with empty space and outlines. Elsewhere on view are other fabled works of art, including the Rampin Horseman and the compelling Hound, both by the sculptor Phaidimos; the noted pediment sculpted into a calf being devoured by a lioness—a 6th-century BC treasure that brings to mind Picasso's Guernica; striking pedimental figures from the Old Temple of Athena (525 BC) depicting the battle between Athena and the Giants; and the great Nike Unfastening Her Sandal, taken from the parapet of the Acropolis's famous Temple of Athena Nike.

    Dionyssiou Areopagitou 15, Athens, Attica, 11742, Greece
    210-900–0900

    Sight Details

    Rate Includes: €10, reduced to €5, Closed Mon. Nov.–Mar.
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  • 3. Ancient Agora

    Monastiraki

    The commercial hub of ancient Athens, the Agora was once lined with statues and expensive shops, the favorite strolling ground of fashionable Athenians and a mecca for merchants and students. The long colonnades offered shade in summer and protection from rain in winter to the throng of people who transacted the day-to-day business of the city, and, under their arches, Socrates discussed matters with Plato, and Zeno expounded the philosophy of the Stoics (whose name comes from the six stoas, or colonnades of the Agora). Besides administrative buildings, the schools, theaters, workshops, houses, stores, and market stalls of a thriving town surrounded it. The foundations of some of the main buildings that may be most easily distinguished include the circular Tholos, the principal seat of executive power in the city; the Mitroon, shrine to Rhea, the mother of gods, which included the vast state archives and registry office (mitroon is still used today to mean registry); the Vouleuterion, where the council met; the Monument of Eponymous Heroes, the Agora's information center, where announcements such as the list of military recruits were hung; and the Sanctuary of the Twelve Gods, a shelter for refugees and the point from which all distances were measured. The Agora's showpiece was the Stoa of Attalos II, where Socrates once lectured and incited the youth of Athens to adopt his progressive ideas on mortality and morality. Today the Museum of Agora Excavations, this two-story building was first designed as a retail complex and erected in the 2nd century BC by Attalos, a king of Pergamum. The reconstruction in 1953–56 used Pendelic marble and creamy limestone from the original structure. The colonnade, designed for promenades, is protected from the blistering sun and cooled by breezes. The most notable sculptures, of historical and mythological figures from the 3rd and 4th centuries BC, are at ground level outside the museum. Take a walk around the site and speculate on the location of Simon the Cobbler's house and shop, which was a meeting place for Socrates and his pupils. The carefully landscaped grounds display a number of plants known in antiquity, such as almond, myrtle, and pomegranate. By standing in the center, you have a glorious view up to the Acropolis. Ayii Apostoloi is the only one of the Agora's nine churches to survive, saved because of its location and beauty. A quirky ruin to visit here is the 1st Century AD latrine in the northeastern corner. On the low hill called Kolonos Agoraios in the Agora's northwest corner stands the best-preserved Doric temple in all Greece, the Hephaistion, sometimes called the Thission because of its friezes showing the exploits of Theseus. Like the other monuments, it is roped off, but you can walk around it to admire its preservation. A little older than the Parthenon, it is surrounded by 34 columns and is 104 feet in length, and was once filled with sculptures (the only remnant of which is the mutilated frieze, once brightly colored). It never quite makes the impact of the Parthenon, in large part due to the fact that it lacks a noble site and can never be seen from below, its sun-matured columns towering heavenward. The Hephaistion was originally dedicated to Hephaistos, god of metalworkers, and it is interesting to note that metal workshops still exist in this area near Ifestou Street.

    3 entrances: from Monastiraki on Adrianou; from Thission on Apostolou Pavlou; and descending from Acropolis on Polygnotou St. (near the church of Ayion Apostolon), Athens, Attica, 10555, Greece
    210-321–0185

    Sight Details

    €10; €30 joint ticket for all Unification of Archaeological Sites
  • 4. Benaki Museum

    Kolonaki

    Greece's oldest private museum received a spectacular addition in 2004, with a hypermodern new branch that looks like it was airlifted in from New York City. The imposing Neoclassical mansion in the posh Kolonaki neighborhood was turned into a museum in 1926 by an illustrious Athenian family and was one of the first to place emphasis on Greece's later heritage at a time when many archaeologists were destroying Byzantine artifacts to access ancient objects. The permanent collection (more than 20,000 items are on display in 36 rooms, and that's only a sample of the holdings) moves chronologically from the ground floor upward, from prehistory to the formation of the modern Greek state. You might see anything from a 5,000-year-old hammered-gold bowl to an austere Byzantine icon of the Virgin Mary to Lord Byron's pistols to the Nobel medals awarded to poets George Seferis and Odysseus Elytis. Some exhibits are just plain fun—the re-creation of a Kozani (Macedonian town) living room; a Karaghiozi shadow puppet piloting a toy plane—all contrasted against the marble and crystal-chandelier grandeur of the Benaki home. The mansion that serves as the main building of the museum was designed by Anastassios Metaxas, the architect who helped restore the Panathenaic Stadium. The Benaki's gift shop, a destination in itself, tempts with exquisitely reproduced ceramics and jewelry, some with exciting contemporary design twists. The second-floor café is on a generous veranda overlooking the National Garden. A couple of blocks away is the Benaki Ghika Gallery, at 3 Krietzou Street, dedicated to the painter Nikos Hadjikyriakos-Ghika. The annex at 138 Pireos Street in the Gazi-Keremeikos neighborhood displays avant-garde temporary exhibitions, while behind Kerameikos Cemetery stands the Benaki Museum of Islamic Art.

    Koumbari 1, Athens, Attica, 10674, Greece
    210-367–1000

    Sight Details

    Rate Includes: €12, Closed Tues.
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  • 5. Benizelos Mansion

    Plaka

    Known as "the oldest house in Athens," this Byzantine mansion was once the home of the prestigious Benizelos Paleologou family, and Athens' patron saint Aghia Filothei (1522--1589). Filothei dynamically sought to protect and secretly educate women and the poor, while engaging in diplomatic affairs in her effort to oust the occupying Ottomans, who eventually killed her. Dating back to the 16th and 17th centuries, the space with its lovely marble-arched courtyard, a fountain, and remains of a Roman wall is now a folk museum of sorts, presenting visitors with how people of that caliber lived. There is also a screening room to watch a short documentary about the family and the Byzantine era.

    Adrianou 96, Athens, Attica, 10556, Greece
    210-324--8861

    Sight Details

    Rate Includes: Closed Mon.
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  • 6. Filopappou

    Acropolis

    This summit includes Lofos Mousson (Hill of the Muses), whose peak offers the city's best view of the Parthenon. Also there is the Monument of Filopappus, depicting a Syrian prince who was such a generous benefactor that the people accepted him as a distinguished Athenian. The marble monument is a tomb decorated by a frieze showing Filopappus driving his chariot. In 294 BC a fort strategic to Athens's defense was built here, overlooking the road to the sea. On the hill of the Pnyx (meaning "crowded"), the all-male general assembly (Ecclesia) met during the time of Pericles. Originally, citizens of the Ecclesia faced the Acropolis while listening to speeches, but they tended to lose their concentration as they gazed upon the monuments, so the positions of the speaker and the audience were reversed. The speaker's platform is still visible on the semicircular terrace. Farther north is the Hill of the Nymphs, with a 19th-century observatory designed by Theophilos Hansen. He was so satisfied with his work, he had servare intaminatum ("to remain intact") inscribed over the entrance.

    Athens, Attica, 11742, Greece
  • 7. Ilias Lalaounis Jewelry Museum

    Makriyianni | Museum/Gallery

    Housing the creations of internationally renowned artist-jeweler Ilias Lalaounis, this private foundation also operates as an international center for the study of decorative arts. The collection includes 4,000 pieces inspired by subjects as diverse as the Treasure of Priam of Troy to the wildflowers of Greece. Many of the works are eye-catching, especially the massive necklaces evoking the Minoan and Byzantine periods. Besides the well-made videos that explain jewelry making, craftspeople in the workshop demonstrate ancient and modern techniques, such as chain weaving and hammering. The company also operates several jewelry stores in Athens.

    Kallisperi 12, at Karyatidon, Athens, Attica, 11742, Greece
    210-922–1044

    Sight Details

    Rate Includes: €5, Closed Mon.
  • 8. Kanellopoulos Museum

    Plaka

    The stately Michaleas Mansion, built in 1884, now showcases the Kanellopoulos family collection. It spans Athens's history from the 3rd century BC to the 19th century, with an emphasis on Byzantine icons, jewelry, and Mycenaean and Geometric vases and bronzes. Note the painted ceiling gracing the first floor.

    Theorias 12 and Panos, Athens, Attica, 10555, Greece
    210-321–2313

    Sight Details

    Rate Includes: €4, Closed Tues., Tues.–Sun. 8:30–2:30
  • 9. Kerameikos Cemetery

    Gazi-Kerameikos

    At the western edge of the modern Gazi district lies the wide, ancient green expanse of Kerameikos, the main cemetery in ancient Athens until Sulla destroyed the city in 86 BC. The name is associated with the modern word "ceramic": in the 12th century BC the district was populated by potters who used the abundant clay from the languid Iridanos River to make funerary urns and grave decorations. From the 7th century BC onward, Kerameikos was the fashionable cemetery of ancient Athens. During succeeding ages cemeteries were superimposed on the ancient one until the latter was discovered in 1861. From the main entrance, you can still see remains of the Makra Teixi (Long Walls) of Themistocles, which ran to Piraeus, and the largest gate in the ancient world, the Dipylon Gate, where visitors entered Athens. The walls rise to 10 feet, a fraction of their original height (up to 45 feet). Here was also the Sacred Gate, used by pilgrims headed to the mysterious rites in Eleusis and by those who participated in the Panathenaic procession, which followed the Sacred Way. Between the two gates are the foundations of the Pompeion, the starting point of the Panathenaic procession. It is said the courtyard was large enough to fit the ship used in the procession. On the Street of Tombs, which branches off the Sacred Way, plots were reserved for affluent Athenians. A number of the distinctive stelae (funerary monuments) remain, including a replica of the marble relief of Dexilios, a knight who died in the war against Corinth (394 BC); he is shown on horseback preparing to spear a fallen foe. To the left of the site's entrance is the Oberlaender Museum, also known as the Kerameikos Museum, whose displays include sculpture, terra-cotta figures, and some striking red-and-black-figured pottery. The extensive grounds of Kerameikos are marshy in some spots; in spring, frogs exuberantly croak their mating songs near magnificent stands of lilies.

    Ermou 148, Athens, Attica, 10553, Greece
    210-346–3552

    Sight Details

    Full: €8 site and museum; €30 joint ticket for all Unification of Archaeological Sites Rate Includes: Daily 8–8
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  • 10. Lycabettus Hill

    Kolonaki

    Myth claims that Athens's highest hill came into existence when Athena removed a piece of Mt. Pendeli, intending to boost the height of her temple on the Acropolis. While she was en route, a crone brought her bad tidings, and the flustered goddess dropped the rock in the middle of the city. Dog walkers, lovers, and joggers make it their daily stomping grounds, while kids and tired visitors love the zap up the steeply inclined teleferique (funicular) to the summit (one ride every 30 minutes). once you reach the top, visit the whitewashed Agios Georgios chapel with a bell tower donated by Queen Olga and enjoy 360-degree views of the capital. The thickly forested hill strewn with wild herbs and flowers offers wonderful respite from the city's car-packed action and sounds, and, depending where you are, you can see Piraeus port and as far as Aegina island, or the Parthenon in all its glory. Built into a cave on the side of the hill is a small shrine to Agios Isidoros, known for housing a miraculous icon. Cars park up at the top at sunset for swoon-inducing magic-hour views of the city as lights twinkle on and the moon rises over "violet-crowned" Mt. Hymettus. Diners should also note that Lycabettus is home to Orizontes Lykavittou, an excellent fish restaurant (which by day houses Café Lycabettus).

    Athens, Attica, 10676, Greece
    210-721–0701-Funicular information

    Sight Details

    Rate Includes: Funicular €8 (round-trip), €5 one-way
  • 11. Museum of Cycladic Art

    Kolonaki

    This museum has an outstanding collection of 350 Cycladic artifacts dating from the Bronze Age, including many of the enigmatic marble figurines whose slender shapes fascinated such artists as Picasso, Modigliani, and Brancusi. The main building is an imposing glass-and-steel design dating from 1985 and built to convey "the sense of austerity and the diffusion of refracted light that predominate in the Cycladic landscape," as the museum puts it. Along with Cycladic masterpieces, a wide array from other eras is also on view, ranging from the Bronze Age through the 6th century AD. The third floor is devoted to Cypriot art, while the fourth floor showcases a fascinating exhibition on "scenes from daily life in antiquity." To handle the overflow, a new wing opened in 2005. A glass corridor connects the main building to the gorgeous, 19th-century, Neoclassical Stathatos Mansion, where temporary exhibitions are presented. Throughout the year, the museum organizes educational initiatives for children and collaborates with several institutions for this purpose. For a break, visit the skylighted café in an enclosed courtyard around a Cycladic-inspired fountain, or the art shop selling artifact replicas as well as books, home decor items, jewelry, and accessories by classic and contemporary Greek designers.

    Neofitou Douka 4, Athens, Attica, 10674, Greece
    210-7228--3215

    Sight Details

    Rate Includes: €7, Closed Tues.
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  • 12. National Archaeological Museum

    Exarcheia

    Many of the greatest achievements in ancient Greek sculpture and painting are housed here in the most important museum in Greece. Artistic highlights from every period of its ancient civilization, from Neolithic to Roman times, make this a treasure trove beyond compare. With a massive renovation completed, works (more than 11,000 of them) that have languished in storage for decades are now on view, reorganized displays are accompanied by enriched English-language information, and the panoply of ancient Greek art appears more spectacular than ever. While the classic culture that was the grandeur of the Greek world no longer exists—it died, for civilizations are mortal—it left indelible markers in all domains, most particularly in art, and many of its masterpieces are on show here. The museum's most celebrated display is the Mycenaean Antiquities. Here are the stunning gold treasures from Heinrich Schliemann's 1876 excavations of Mycenae's royal tombs: the funeral mask of a bearded king, once thought to be the image of Agamemnon but now believed to be much older, from about the 15th century BC; a splendid silver bull's-head libation cup; and the 15th-century BC Vapheio Goblets, masterworks in embossed gold. Mycenaeans were famed for their carving in miniature, and an exquisite example is the ivory statuette of two curvaceous mother goddesses, each with a child nestled on her lap. Withheld from the public since they were damaged in the 1999 earthquakes, but not to be missed, are the beautifully restored frescoes from Santorini, delightful murals depicting daily life in Minoan Santorini. Along with the treasures from Mycenae, these wall paintings are part of the museum's Prehistoric Collection. Other stars of the museum include the works of Geometric and Archaic art (10th to 6th century BC), and kouroi and funerary stelae (8th to 5th century BC), among them the stelae of the warrior Aristion signed by Aristokles, and the unusual Running Hoplite (a hoplite was a Greek infantry soldier). The collection of Classical art (5th to 3rd century BC) contains some of the most renowned surviving ancient statues: the bareback Jockey of Artemision, a 2nd-century BC Hellenistic bronze salvaged from the sea; from the same excavation, the bronze Artemision Poseidon (some say Zeus), poised and ready to fling a trident (or thunderbolt?); and the Varvakios Athena, a half-size marble version of the gigantic gold-and-ivory cult statue that Pheidias erected in the Parthenon. Light refreshments are served in a lower ground-floor café, which opens out to a patio and sculpture garden. Don't forget to also check the museum's temporary exhibitions.

    Patission Ave. (28 Oktovriou) 44, Athens, Attica, 10682, Greece
    213-214–4800

    Sight Details

    Rate Includes: €12 (€6 in winter); €15 for unified museum ticket (includes Byzantine and Christian Museum, Epigraphical Museum, Numismatic Museum)
  • 13. National Garden

    Syntagma

    When you can't take the city noise anymore, step into this oasis completed in 1860 as part of King Otto and Queen Amalia's royal holdings. Here old men on the benches argue politics, children run free among lush nature, runners count early-morning jog laps, and animal lovers feed the stray cats that roam among the more than 500 species of trees and plants, many labeled. At the east end is the neoclassical Zappeion Hall, built in 1888 as an Olympic building (with funds from Greek benefactor Evangelos Zappas). Since then it has been used for major political and cultural events: it was here that Greece signed its accession to what was then the European Community. Next door, the leafy Aegli Zappiou café and open-air cinema attract Athenians year-round. Cross the road to the nearby Panathenaic Stadium, which was built on the very site of an ancient stadium for the revived Olympic Games in 1896. You can look at the stadium only from the outside, but there is an elevated dirt running track behind it (free entrance through a big gate on Archimidous Street, which runs directly behind the stadium). The tree-lined track area and adjacent Ardittos hill constitute one of the most pleasant, quiet public spaces in the city—they also offer some stunning vantage points. Children appreciate the playground, duck pond, and small zoo at the east end of the National Garden.

    Athens, Attica, 19557, Greece
    210-323–7830

    Sight Details

    Rate Includes: Gates shut at sunset
  • 14. Numismatic Museum Iliou Melathron

    Syntagma

    Even those uninterested in coins might want to visit this museum for a glimpse of the former home of Heinrich Schliemann, who famously excavated Troy and Mycenae in the 19th century. Built by the Bavarian architect Ernst Ziller for the archaeologist's family and baptized the "Iliou Melanthron" (or Palace of Troy), it flaunts an imposing neo-Venetian facade. Inside are some spectacular rooms, including the vast and floridly decorated Hesperides Hall, ashimmer with colored marbles and neo-Pompeian wall paintings. Today, in this exquisite Neoclassical mansion, seemingly haunted by the spirit of the great historian, you can see more than 600,000 coins, including those from the archaeologist's own collection, as well as 4th-century BC measures employed against forgers and coins grouped according to what they depict—animals, plants, myths, and famous buildings like the Lighthouse of Alexandria. The museum's peaceful garden café is a tranquil and cozy oasis ideal for a rendezvous.

    Panepistimiou 12, Athens, Attica, 10671, Greece
    210-363–2057

    Sight Details

    Rate Includes: €6; €15 for unified museum ticket (includes National Archaeological Museum, Epigraphical Museu, Byzantine and Christian Museum), Closed Tues.
  • 15. Odeon of Herodes Atticus

    Acropolis

    Hauntingly beautiful, this ancient theater was built in AD 160 by the affluent Herodes Atticus in memory of his wife, Regilla. Known as the Irodion and visited throughout the summer by culture vultures, it is nestled Greek-style into the hillside, but with typically Roman arches in its three-story stage building and barrel-vaulted entrances. The circular orchestra has now become a semicircle, and the long-vanished cedar roof probably covered only the stage and dressing rooms, not the 34 rows of seats. The theater, which holds 5,000, was restored and reopened in 1955 for the Athens Epidaurus Festival. To enter you must hold a ticket to one of the summer performances, which range from the Royal Ballet to ancient tragedies usually performed in Modern Greek. Contact the festival's box office for ticket information. Children under six are not allowed except at some special performances.

    Dionyssiou Areopagitou, Athens, Attica, 11742, Greece
    210-928–2900-box office
    View Tours and Activities
  • 16. Roman Agora

    Plaka

    The city's commercial center from the 1st century BC to the 4th century AD, the Roman Market was a large rectangular courtyard with a peristyle that provided shade for the arcades of shops. Its most notable feature is the west entrance's Bazaar Gate, or Gate of Athena Archegetis, completed around AD 2; the inscription records that it was erected with funds from Julius Caesar and Augustus. Halfway up one solitary square pillar behind the gate's north side, an edict inscribed by Hadrian regulates the sale of oil, a reminder that this was the site of the annual bazaar where wheat, salt, and oil were sold. On the north side of the Roman Agora stands one of the few remains of the Turkish occupation, the Fethiye (Victory) Mosque. The eerily beautiful mosque was built in the late 15th century on the site of a Christian church to celebrate the Turkish conquest of Athens and to honor Mehmet II (the Conqueror). During the few months of Venetian rule in the 17th century, the mosque was converted to a Roman Catholic church; it is now closed to the public. Surrounded by a cluster of old houses on the western slope of the Acropolis, the world-famous Tower of the Winds (Aerides) is now open to the public for visits. Located inside the Roman Agora, it is the most appealing and well preserved of the Roman monuments of Athens, keeping time since the 1st century BC. It was originally a sundial, water clock, and weather vane topped by a bronze Triton with a metal rod in his hand, which followed the direction of the wind. Its eight sides face the direction of the eight winds into which the compass was divided; expressive reliefs around the tower personify these eight winds, called I Aerides (the Windy Ones) by Athenians. Note the north wind, Boreas, blowing on a conch, and the beneficent west wind, Zephyros, scattering blossoms.

    Pelopidas and Aiolou, Athens, Attica, 10559, Greece
    210-324–5220

    Sight Details

    €8; €30 5-day joint ticket for all Unification of Archaeological Sites
    View Tours and Activities
  • 17. Varvakeios Agora

    Monastiraki

    Athens's cacophonous Central Market runs along Athinas Street: on one side are open-air stalls selling fruit and vegetables, with a few stores selling mainly eastern European foods tucked at the back. Across the street, in the huge neoclassical covered market, built between 1870 and 1884 (and renovated in 1996), are the meat market next to the fish market, juxtaposing the surrealistic composition of suspended carcasses and shimmering fish on marble counters. The shops at the north end of the market, to the right on Sofokleous, sell the best cheese, olives, halvah, bread, spices, and cold cuts—including pastourma (spicy cured beef)—available in Athens. Nearby is Evripidou Street, lined with herb and spice shops all the way down. Small restaurants serving traditional fare and patsa (tripe soup), dot the market; these stay open until almost dawn and are popular stops with weary clubbers trying to ease their hangovers.

    Athinas Street, Athens, Attica, 10552, Greece

    Sight Details

    Rate Includes: Closed Sun., Mon.–Sat. 8–6
  • 18. B&M Theocharakis Foundation

    Kolonaki

    A key reference point for Athens's culture vultures, this private nonprofit foundation focuses on the visual arts and music, with a special interest in modernism. The driving force behind the imposing cultural center, housed in a neoclassical building beside the Greek Parliament, is Basil Theocharakis, a prominent businessman who is also an avid and talented painter, and his wife, Marina. Temporary exhibitions, classical concerts, and educational workshops are held here on a regular basis, while Cafe Merlin, the elegant first-floor café, offers a welcome respite from the city's hustle and bustle. On the mezzanine floor you'll also find a lovely café-bistro, and on the ground floor a charming gift shop.

    Vassilissis Sofias 9, Athens, Attica, 10671, Greece
    210-361–1206

    Sight Details

    Rate Includes: €7, Closed Aug.
  • 19. Benaki Museum of Islamic Art

    Gazi-Kerameikos

    Housed in a gleaming white neoclassical mansion with a sweeping view of the Kerameikos cemetery (that can be relished over coffee at the rooftop café), this annex of the Benaki Museum provides a welcoming home to its extensive Islamic art collection (which is considered among the most important in the world). More than 8,000 pieces of art hail from regions as widely spread geographically as North Africa, India, Persia, Asia Minor, Arabia, Mesopotamia, and even Sicily and Spain.

    Dipilou 12, Athens, Attica, 10553, Greece
    210-325–1311

    Sight Details

    Rate Includes: Permanent collection €9; temporary exhibitions €7, Closed Mon.–Wed, Thurs.–Sun. 9–5
  • 20. Benaki Museum Pireos Street Annexe

    Gazi-Kerameikos

    The eye-knocking Benaki Museum Annexe is located at one of the busiest and most industrially developed points in the city. The minimalist exterior is covered in smooth pink stone—a kind of beacon of modernity—with creatively designed clean lines on the dusty, loud avenue. Inside, all is high-ceilinged atriums, transparent walkway ascents, and multiple levels, a dramatic setting for the museum's temporary exhibitions (many of which are far more avant-garde in character than those housed in the main building).

    Pireos 138, Athens, Attica, 11854, Greece
    210-345–3111

    Sight Details

    Rate Includes: €5–€8 (varies by special exhibit), Sept.–Jul., Thurs. and Sun. 10–6, Fri. and Sat. 10–10, Closed Mon.–Wed. and Aug.

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