The English novelist John Fowles described Athens as a mass of dice scattered across the Attic Plain. It certainly isn’t the prettiest European capital: looking down from Mount Pentéli you’ll appreciate the full extent of its architectural sprawl. Combine this visual chaos with hooting traffic, the néfos (air pollution) that envelops the centre and the agitation, nervous tension and uncertainty created by the debt crisis, and you might be tempted to head straight for the islands.
But, a certain resentment of Germany aside, Greeks do not take their problems out on foreign visitors in any way, and for the visitor Athens’s attractions still emerge with a little patience: catch the Parthenon when the crowds are thinnest, visit one of the richly endowed museums, patronise an ouzerí until the small hours as locals do, and engage with Athenians – many of whom speak excellent English – to get their own, human view of their present situation, and this chaotic city will grow on you.
Acropolis
The Acropolis 1 [map] (daily; ticket valid for surrounding archaeological sites) rises over 60 metres (200ft) above the city. Viewed from the streets below, the “upper city” makes all else in Athens fade into insignificance. The best times to visit are early morning in summer or early afternoon in winter.
The Parthenon crowns the Acropolis.
Team Nowitz/Apa Publications
On top is the Parthenon (Virgin’s Chamber). Fifteen years under construction, this temple to the goddess Athena was the crowning glory of the giant public works programme launched by Athens’s great statesman Pericles during the 440s BC. The spectacle it presented then is hardly matched by the familiar ruin we know today.
There was colour everywhere, so much so that some observers found it quite offensive. “We are gilding and adorning our city like a wanton woman,” was how Plutarch reported these complaints, “decking her with costly statues and offerings and 1,000-talent temples.” But when you catch a glimpse of the temple’s tawny marble columns you’ll forgive Pericles his extravagance. In fact the columns incline slightly inwards and not a single structural line is straight, testament to the mathematical genius of its architect, Iktinos.
Conservation and reconstruction work has made the Parthenon the most attractive it has been in centuries, although some of the recent work may not be sustained due to the crisis. Hundreds of blocks of masonry were remounted to replace rusting, 1920s-vintage iron clamps with non-corrosive titanium, and restorers collected about 1,600 chunks of its marble scattered over the hilltop.
The Elgin Marbles
During the 18th and early 19th centuries, Greece attracted Grand Tourists intent on mega-souvenir-hunting in the form of archaeological pillaging. None has acquired more notoriety than Lord Elgin, who while ambassador to the Ottomans in the early 1800s secured permission from the Sultan to excavate on the Parthenon and study stones with inscriptions. He interpreted this as a licence to remove most of the pediment friezes with their rich bas-reliefs, as well as one of the six Caryatids, which were all sold to the British Museum. Elgin’s actions were controversial even then – Lord Byron deplored them in his poetry – and in recent decades have sparked a major dispute between Greece and the UK. The Greeks, who studiously use the term “Parthenon friezes” and regard Elgin as a vandal, have long demanded their return. The top floor of the new Acropolis Museum is pointedly designed for their eventual accommodation, with a mock-up of the pediment orientated exactly like the original structure, visible just uphill through glass windows.
Defenders of British retention point out that Elgin’s behaviour was normal for the time and probably saved the friezes from local lime kilns, and returning them would set a precedent that could strip many museums of their treasures. So despite a vociferous lobby in Britain advocating restitution, these treasures are unlikely to come back to Athens soon.
Beyond the Propylaia or “stepped entry” looms the Erechtheion, an elegant temple completed in 396 BC. The Caryatids – noble maidens in the service of the goddess Athena – now supporting the porch are copies, but five originals are displayed in the Acropolis Museum. On what was once the citadel’s southern bastion is the small, square temple of Athena Nike, completed in 421 BC and reconstructed since 2000. According to legend, from this spot Theseus’ father, King Aegeus, threw himself to his death on seeing a black-sailed ship approaching. Theseus had promised to hoist a white sail on his return if he succeeded in killing the Minotaur in Crete, but forgot to change the colour.
The Peplos Kore in the New Acropolis Museum.
Team Nowitz/Apa Publications
The sculptures and reliefs that Lord Elgin failed to loot can be viewed in the Acropolis Museum 2 [map] (Tue–Sun) opened in 2009 in a huge building overlooking the Acropolis. For an idea of the ancients’ notions of beauty, take a close look at the korai (statues of women) also displayed there: you can still discern traces of make-up and earrings, and the patterns of close-fitting dresses.
Below the Acropolis
On the south approach to the Acropolis is the Theatre of Dionysos 3 [map] (entrance on Leofóros Dionysíou Areopagítou; daily). The theatre’s origins date back to the 6th century BC, when it was a simple structure of wooden stands. Later on, an amphitheatre was dug out of the hillside. The marble seating tiers date from 320 BC, but the stage area hosted the plays of Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides and Aristophanes at the Festival of Dionysia during the 5th century BC. The theatre fell into disuse after the fall of Rome in the 5th century AD.
Just west, up Dionysíou Areopagítou, the smaller Odeion of Herodes Atticus 4 [map] was built in the 2nd century AD by a prominent Athenian. Here, from its steep, semicircular rows of seats, you can have a summertime taste of the atmosphere of the ancient Greek theatre.
On the other side of the Acropolis, extending northeastwards, lies the sprawling site of the Ancient Agora 5 [map] (daily), a marketplace and centre of public life. Its focal point is the Stoa of Attalos, an impressive two-aisled colonnade 122 metres (400ft) long, now housing a small museum. Further east stands the Tower of the Winds (Aérides) 6 [map], built in the 1st century BC as a water-driven clock, compass and weathervane; it predates the surrounding Roman Agora that was built 200 years later by philhellene Roman Emperor Hadrian.
Exhibits in the New Acropolis Museum.
Nikos Daniilidis/Acropolis Museum
Modern Athens
Athens’s heart lies within an almost equilateral triangle defined by Platía Omónias (Omónia Square) in the north, Monastiráki in the south and Platía Syndágmatos (Sýndagma Square), or Constitution Square. Cars are restricted to a handful of main arteries. Ermoú, once a traffic-clogged mess, is now pedestrianised, and has the exquisite Byzantine church of Kapnikaréa about halfway along.
Sýndagma is ringed by hotels and a few cafés and, presiding over it, Greece’s Parliament, which has made the square the main focus of protests during the crisis. Less than a mile northeast lies Omónia, with its noisy (and thus cheaper) businessmen’s hotels, swirling traffic and jobless immigrants.
Tip
Buy a daily travel card, which is valid for all transport modes: tram, bus and metro. Currently €4, you’ll get your money back after just four rides. Even better value is a one-week card for €14.
Linking these two squares are the parallel streets of Stadíou and Panepistimíou, with shopping arcades between them, the Attica department store and cinemas. Heading uphill from Panepistimíou, the streets get smarter as they blend with Kolonáki, the trendiest area for well-heeled Athenians. Contrastingly downmarket is Monastiráki 7 [map] to the west, with shops selling everything from tools, beads and religious paraphernalia to gaudy tourist tat. The famous Flea Market occupies Platía Avyssinías, where weekend mornings see browsers of genuine (and expensive) antiques and furniture.
Cuts and closures in Greece
The cuts in public spending intended to deal with Greece’s economic crisis have had a knock-on effect at many cultural institutions. Traditionally, from April to September most monuments and public museums have gone onto “summer hours”, staying open until 6pm or 8pm; since 2011, except for a few major sites – including the Acropolis and Acropolis Museum – most stay on winter hours all year, closing at 4pm or 5pm.
Other restrictions are less predictable: due to staff cuts many sites may be closed on other days each week as well as their usual closing day (generally Monday) and in museums (especially the National Archaeological Museum) entire rooms may be closed off at different times. Finding out about closures in advance is difficult (official published information and websites are often inaccurate); it’s best to check with tourist offices or the site itself as close to the day you’ll be visiting as possible, and be prepared to be flexible. The useful expat site livingingreece.gr does its best to keep up.
Top museums
Athens is well endowed with museums. The revamped Byzantine and Christian Museum 8 [map] (Tue–Sun) houses a brilliant array of icons, frescoes and other religious art, while the Benáki Museum 9 [map] (Wed–Sun) is an eclectic collection of Greek treasures from all periods, including jewellery, costumes and contemporary art.
Tzisdarákis Mosque in Monastiráki Square.
Team Nowitz/Apa Publications
Mosaic in the Byzantine and Christian Museum.
Team Nowitz/Apa Publications
The National Archaeological Museum ) [map] (daily) is a fantastic storehouse of ancient Greek art. Among the treasures here are the so-called Agamemnon’s mask, found by the famous German archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann at Mycenae; a lifelike equestrian statue of Emperor Augustus; the bronze of Poseidon poised to throw his (now vanished) trident; the Antikythera mechanism, a geared astronomical computer a millennium ahead of its time; plus Minoan frescoes from Akrotíri.
The highlight of the Goulandrís Museum of Cycladic Art ! [map] (Wed–Sun) is a unique collection of slim, stylised Cycladic figurines in marble, originally painted but now white. Dating from 3200–2000 BC, they fascinated such artists as Picasso, Modigliani and Henry Moore. The museum also hosts temporary exhibitions with distinctly un-archaeological themes.
Eating out in Pláka.
Team Nowitz/Apa Publications
Other local attractions
A saving grace of Athens is the variety of easy ways out of the urban din. Take the funicular railway up Lykavitós Hill @ [map] for spectacular views from the top of Ploutárhou Street, near Platía Kolonáki. In mythology, Lykavitós Hill resulted from a fit of pique on the part of the goddess Athena, who hurled a large rock at the daughters of King Kekrops, and missed; the missile, on landing, became the ridge.
A jungly haven for birds and cats, criss-crossed by irrigation rivulets, the National Gardens £ [map] are a stone’s throw from the Byzantine and Benáki museums. Not particularly green, but certainly an oasis, is Pláka $ [map], the 19th-century quarter clustered at the foot of the Acropolis. In amongst protected domestic architecture and part-pedestrianised streets are several minor museums, Byzantine churches, a Turkish bath and a mosque. Pláka ends and more raucous Monastiráki begins at Hadrian’s Library (and another mosque, the Tzisdarákis, now home to a ceramics museum).
A view of modern Athens.
Team Nowitz/Apa Publications
The one “must” excursion out of Athens is to Cape Soúnion. On this sea-lashed promontory towers the Temple of Poseidon (Tue–Sun), probably Greece’s most evocative ancient temple and, with 16 out of 34 columns remaining, one of the best preserved. On the column nearest the entrance, Romantic poet Lord Byron scratched his name in 1810; because of subsequent imitation, the temple precincts are now off-limits. In clear conditions, especially near sunset, you can see the Cyclades to the southeast and the Peloponnese to the west.