Tourist attractions Athens

This hill (147 m high) was in Antiquity consecrated to the Muses and named Mouseion . On the way up, note a troglodytic dwelling for a long time identified as Socrates' prison. The hill is dominated by Philopappos' monument (116 A.D.), built in me..

This Doric temple was built in the epoch of Pericles by Iktinos, under Phidias . His statue, dedicated to Athena, decorated the sanctuary. In the Byzantine epoch this statue taken to Constantinople, was destroyed during the siege of the city by the ..

This elegant 5C B.C. temple, with many places of worship, was a church, a palace, a harem and then a military magazine. The famous portico of the kores was named the «Caryatids tribune» because 6 statues of young women, clad in tunics with parallel f..

After entering this place, how will you leave it? You will certainly be enchanted by the celebrated kores with their mischievous smiles, the famous “pensive Athena”, the remarkable kore of Antenor, the winged statue of Nike and the kore with a dove. ..

This graceful Ionic temple (late 5C B.C.) juts out in front of the Propylaea, overlooking the Sacred Way. According to the legend, Aegeus, the father of Theseus, believing his son to be dead, threw himself from the rock where the temple is built. Reb..

The Lycabetus, or Wolves' Hill, 277 m high, is crowned by Saint George's Chapel. From the neighbouring terraces, a wonderful panorama embraces the city of Athens, the Acropolis, and the Piraeus coast, together with the main surrounding peaks: to th..

Boasting one of the finest collections anywhere, this museum was founded in 1834. Devoted to ancient art from the Neolithic to the Roman epoch, its revamped interior displays works of art from the major Greek archaeological sites. Admire the famous ..

The largest cemetery in Athens houses tombs decorated with stelae and statues from the 6C B.C. They attained their greatest splendour in the century of Pericles. Note the tombs of the 4C B.C. erected by rich Athenian families, including a family tomb..

This Doric temple (5C B.C.) overlooks the Agora. Called the Theseion, it is in fact the Hehpaisteion : a worship place of Hephaistos. In the Byzantine epoch it became a church, then a cemetery until the last century. The sculptures evoke the adventu..

Pláka forms a picturesque web of small peaceful roads and alleys, small squares and terraces linking flights of steps. A few small Byzantine churches alternate with old houses with round-tiled roofs and wooden balconies, sometimes surrounded by hidde..

The Small Metropole is a charming 12C Byzantine church. In the external walls, the oldest decorative elements have been re-used: between the two Corinthian capitals, marking the corners of the façade, runs an ancient frieze (4C B.C.), representing th..

On this hill camped the Amazons, the enemies of Theseus, who consecrated the place to Ares, god of war. According to another legend, Orestes, who murdered his mother, was judged here. Before these open-air assizes the courtesan Phryne was accused of ..

In the 6C B.C. a first stage was built in the sacred enclosure dedicated to Dionysos, where the famous Dionysian festivals were held. These installations gave way at the start of the next century to a genuine theatre where you missed the great plays ..

Once one of the largest temples in the Greek world. In 6C B.C., the sons of Pisistrates wished to raise a huge temple, but their downfall interrupted the work, only to be restarted in the 2C B.C. The temple was only completed in 132 A.D., under Emper..

Located in a distinctive 19C residence, this museum houses the collection of Antoine Benáki (1873-1954). Thanks to his generosity, the museum was significantly expanded and organised along chronological lines from the prehistoric to the present day, ..

The core of this museum illustrating the development of Greek art over a period of 3 000 years is the outstanding private collection of N-P Goulandris. You will find around 350 objects evoking Cycladic civilisation and a magnificent collection of mar..

An inspired museum laid out along modern didactic lines, covering the period from late Antiquity and the birth of Christian art, to the fall of Byzanium by which time churches adhered to rigid architectural conventions. Exhibits include reconstructio..

Dáfni Monastery was founded in the 5C AD. From the slope of the hill south of the buildings one can see the original entrance, the rectangular precinct with a well-preserved section of the 5C-6C wall complete with sentry walk and towers, the cloist..

Fresh springs, shady plane trees, pines and cypresses, and silence occasionally interrupted by buzzing Hymettos bees make this a charming spot; the monastery of Kaisirini was built in the 11C. On exiting the building, take the path rising among oli..

Covering around 2.5ha, the agora, today a somewhat confusing jumble of ruins, was an esplanade traversed diagonally by the Panathenaic Way, near to which stood the Altar of the Twelve Olympian Gods. The esplanade was surrounded by administrative buil..