Athens (Αθήνα — the city named for Athena, goddess of wisdom and warfare, who won it from Poseidon in a contest by gifting the olive tree) is the oldest continuously inhabited city in Europe (3,500 years of documented habitation) and the birthplace of democracy, philosophy, theatre, the Olympic Games and much of Western civilization. The Acropolis (the Sacred Rock above the city — the Parthenon (447–438 BC, the most perfect building ever designed), the Erechtheion (with the Caryatids — the porch supported by female figures), the Temple of Athena Nike and the Propylaea gateway) is the most important ancient monument in the world and one of the most emotionally overwhelming sites a human can visit. Modern Athens (3.6 million in Greater Athens) is a city completely transformed since the 2004 Olympic Games: the Acropolis Museum (2009 — one of the greatest purpose-built museums anywhere), the pedestrianized archaeological promenade connecting all the major ancient sites, and the food scene of the Monastiraki and Psiri neighbourhoods have made Athens one of the most compelling city-break destinations in Europe. Greek food is the most misunderstood of all Mediterranean cuisines: the souvlaki (the street pita wrap with pork or chicken, tomato, onion, tzatziki and paprika crisps), the gigantes (giant baked beans in tomato), the taramosalata (fish roe spread), and the mezze culture of small plates is far more sophisticated than the tourist beach-resort version suggests.
The Acropolis (Ακρόπολη — "high city" — the Sacred Rock above Athens, 156m above sea level: the UNESCO World Heritage ancient citadel with its four surviving major monuments. The Parthenon (447–438 BC, architect Ictinus and Callicrates under Pericles, sculptor Pheidias): the Doric temple of Athena Parthenos (the Virgin Athena) — 8 × 17 columns, each with entasis (the slight outward bulge designed to counteract the optical illusion that straight columns appear to curve inward). The Erechtheion (421–406 BC) with the Porch of the Caryatids (the six female draped figures supporting the south porch — five originals in the Acropolis Museum, one in the British Museum). The Temple of Athena Nike (427–424 BC). Arrive at opening (8am May–Sep, 9am Oct–Apr) to beat the heat and the 10,000 daily visitors.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideThe Acropolis Museum (2009, Bernard Tschumi — one of the greatest purpose-built museums in the world: built directly above an excavated Greek and Roman neighbourhood (visible through the glass floor), designed to house the surviving Parthenon sculptures in the exact configuration they held on the temple. The Parthenon Gallery (the top floor, oriented on the same axis as the temple visible through the full-height glass walls outside): the frieze at eye level for the first time — the processional scene of the Panathenaic festival (the festival held every 4 years honouring Athena), with the gaps (the missing sections in the British Museum clearly marked with white plaster casts — the most politically charged empty spaces in any museum). The Caryatids (five of six originals — the sixth in the British Museum, also marked with a cast).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideThe Ancient Agora (the marketplace and political center of ancient Athens — included in the combined Acropolis ticket): the Stoa of Attalos (the 2nd-century BC royal stoa, rebuilt 1956 by the American School of Classical Studies — the finest reconstruction of a Greek building, now housing the Agora Museum with original artefacts found in the excavation), and the Temple of Hephaestus (449–415 BC — the best-preserved ancient Greek temple in the world, more complete even than the Parthenon). This was where Socrates walked and argued, where the Athenian jury condemned him to death (399 BC), where Paul preached to the Athenians (49 AD, Acts 17).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideMonastiraki (the neighbourhood below the Acropolis — the flea market quarter of Athens: the Monastiraki Flea Market (old furniture, army surplus, antique tools, vintage clothing), the bouzoukia (Greek music tavernas), and the souvlaki stands. The definitive Athens street meal: pork souvlaki in a pita with tomato, onion, tzatziki and paprika-dusted crisps (French fries inside the pita — a Greek custom that horrifies purists and delights everyone else) from Thanasis (Monastiraki Square — the most famous souvlaki in Athens since 1950, the charcoal-grilled meat with the signature fat-heavy marinade). Loukoumades (λουκουμάδες — the Greek doughnut holes in honey, cinnamon and sesame, from a street cart at Monastiraki) for dessert.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideCape Sounion (Ακρωτήρι Σούνιο — 70km south of Athens on the Attica coast, 1.5 hrs by KTEL bus from Pedion Areos Park (€7 each way, hourly departures) or organized tour: the Temple of Poseidon (444–440 BC, the same architect as the Temple of Hephaestus — the Doric column temple on the 65m white limestone headland above the Aegean Sea, the last sight Greek sailors saw leaving for the east and the first sight returning home). Lord Byron visited in 1810 and carved his name in a column (it is still visible — one of the most famous acts of vandalism by a literary figure). At sunset the temple silhouette against the Aegean is the most romantic ancient ruin in the world.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideThe National Archaeological Museum of Greece (Εθνικό Αρχαιολογικό Μουσείο — Patision 44 — the most important collection of Greek antiquities in the world: 11,000 exhibits from the Neolithic period (7,000 BC) to the Byzantine era. The Gold of Mycenae gallery (the Mask of Agamemnon (1550–1500 BC — the golden death mask discovered by Schliemann in 1876, incorrectly identified as Agamemnon's but actually predating the Trojan War by 300 years), the golden cups, the inlaid daggers, the bronze swords), the Antikythera Mechanism (one of the two antikythera displays in Athens — the world's oldest known analog computer (150–100 BC), a 37-gear bronze mechanism that calculated the movements of the sun, moon and planets and predicted eclipses), and the Bronze Age Thera frescoes from Akrotiri (the Minoan murals from the city buried by the Santorini eruption c.1627 BC — the best-preserved Bronze Age paintings in the world outside Egypt).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideDiporto tis Athinas (Diporto — "the two-doored" — 9 Sokratous, Athinas Market, the most extraordinary restaurant experience in Athens: a half-underground, cave-like space with wine barrels, no menu (the owner brings what is available that day — usually: gigantes (giant baked beans in tomato sauce, the finest version in Athens), tirokafteri (spicy cheese dip), boiled vegetables with olive oil, revithia (chickpea soup) and grilled fish) and a carafe of house wine. No sign, no menu, very little lighting, Athenian regulars since the restaurant was founded in 1887. The perfect antidote to tourist restaurants.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuidePlaka (Πλάκα — the "neighbourhood of the Gods" at the foot of the Acropolis: the oldest continuously inhabited neighbourhood in Athens, with architecture spanning Byzantine (the tiny 11th-century Sotira Lykodimou church), Ottoman (the octagonal Agia Aikaterini tower), neoclassical Greek (the Anafiotika quarter — built by craftsmen from the Cycladic island of Anafi brought to Athens to build King Otto's palace in the 1830s, who built their houses exactly as they would at home: the only Cycladic whitewashed village in Athens). The neighbourhood streets of Adrianou (the main tourist street) and the hidden lanes behind are the most evocative in the city.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuidePsiri (Ψυρρή — the neighbourhood directly north of Monastiraki: the former leather-working and metalworking quarter of Athens, converted to bars, restaurants and creative studios from the 1990s. The finest lunch: the Kriti (Κρήτη) pastry shops selling spanakopita (spinach and feta in crispy filo pastry) and tiropita (cheese pies) by the slice, and the specialized souvlaki shops where you can get kalamaki (the skewered meat on its own, without the pita) with a side of tzatziki and grilled peppers.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideLycabettus Hill (Λυκαβηττός — the 277m pine-covered hill in the center of Athens: the highest point in the city, with the cable car (τελεφερίκ — Aristippou Street, €7 return, 3 minutes) rising through the pine trees to the small whitewashed chapel of Agios Georgios at the top. From the top: the complete panorama of Athens (the Acropolis directly to the southwest, the Aegean Sea beyond it, the Saronic Gulf islands, the mountains of the Peloponnese on the horizon, and the plain of Attica spreading in every direction). At sunset the Acropolis turns golden and the city lights come on in waves across the plain — the most beautiful 20 minutes in Athens.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideGreek coffee (ελληνικός καφές — the same as Turkish coffee but never to be called that in Greece: finely ground coffee boiled in a small copper pot (briki) with sugar (sketos = no sugar, metrios = one sugar, glykos = sweet), poured unfiltered into a small cup and allowed to settle (do not drink the grounds). At a kafeneio (the traditional Greek coffee house — tables on the pavement, old men playing backgammon (tavli), the newspaper, the radio, the unhurried afternoon that extends to 11pm) in Kolonaki (the elegant Athenian neighbourhood on the slope of Lycabettus — the kafeneio culture at its most authentic).
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