7 Tholos
13 Church of the Holy Apostles
14 south gate
ΑΡΧΑΙΑ ΑΓΟΡΑ
While the Acropolis was the ceremonial showpiece, it was the Agora that was the real heart of ancient Athens. For some 800 years, from its founding in the sixth century B.C. to its destruction by barbarians in A.D. 267, the Agora (which means “gathering place”) was the hub of all commercial, political, and social life in Athens, as well as home to much of its religious activity. Everybody who was anybody in ancient Athens spent time here, from Socrates and Plato to a visiting missionary named Paul. Little survives from the classical Agora. Other than one very well-preserved temple and a rebuilt stoa, it’s a field of humble ruins. But that makes it a quiet, uncrowded spot to wander and get a feel for the ancients.
Cost: €8 or covered by €30 Acropolis combo-ticket (which you can buy here; see here).
Hours: Daily May-Sept 8:00-20:00, April and Oct 8:00-19:00, Nov-March 8:00-15:00. The Agora Museum inside has the same hours, except on Monday, when it opens at 11:00.
Getting There: From the Monastiraki Metro stop, walk a block south (uphill, toward the Acropolis). Turn right on Adrianou street, and follow the pedestrian-only, café-lined street along the railroad tracks for about 200 yards. The Agora entrance is on your left, across from a small, yellow church. The entrance can be hard to spot: It’s where a path crosses over the railroad tracks (look for a small, pale-yellow sign that says Ministry of Culture—Ancient Agora).
Compass Points: The Agora entrance is north; the Acropolis is south.
Information: Panels with printed descriptions of the ruins are scattered helpfully throughout the site; tel. 210-321-0180, www.culture.gr.
Tours: 
Download my free Ancient Agora audio tour.
Cuisine Art: Picnicking is not allowed in the Agora. Plenty of cafés and tavernas line busy Adrianou street near the Agora entrance, and more good eateries front the Apostolou Pavlou pedestrian walkway that hems in the western edge of the Agora, in the district called Thissio (see the Eating chapter).
Starring: A well-preserved temple, a rebuilt stoa, three monumental statues, and the ruins of the civilization that built the Western world.
Entering the site from Adrianou street, belly up to the illustration at the top of the ramp that shows the Athenian Agora at the peak of its size. Face the Acropolis (to the south), look out over the expanse of ruins and trees, and get oriented.
The long column-lined building to the left is the reconstructed Stoa of Attalos (#13 on the illustration). To your right, atop a hill (the view is likely blocked by trees) is the well-preserved Temple of Hephaistos (#20). The pathway called the Panathenaic Way (#21) runs from the Agora’s entrance up to the Acropolis. Directly ahead of you are three tall statue-columns (also probably obscured by trees)—part of what was once the Odeon of Agrippa (#12).
Panathenaic Way cutting through the Agora.
Statue-columns amid the greenery.
In the distance, the Agora’s far end is bordered by hills. From left to right are the Acropolis (#1), the Areopagus (“Hill of Ares,” or Mars Hill, #2), and Pnyx Hill (#3).
Although the illustration implies that you’re standing somewhere behind the Stoa Poikile (“Painted Stoa,” #28), in fact you are located in front of it, closer to the heart of the Agora, to the left of the Altar of the Twelve Gods (#26). In ancient times, that altar was considered the geographical center of Athens, from which distances were measured. Today, the area north of the altar (and north of today’s illustration) remains largely unexcavated and inaccessible to tourists, taken over by the railroad tracks and Adrianou street.
This self-guided tour starts at the Stoa of Attalos (with its museum), then crosses the Agora to the Temple of Hephaistos, returning to the Panathenaic Way via three giant statues. Finally, we’ll head up the Panathenaic Way toward the Acropolis.
Walk to the bottom of the ramp at your left for a better view. Find a shady spot to ponder...
What lies before you now is a maze of ruins—the remains of many centuries of buildings.
A millennium before the time of Socrates, during the Mycenaean Period (around 1600-1200 B.C.), this area held the oldest cemetery in Athens. Later, the Agora was developed into a political forum—the center for speeches, political announcements, and demonstrations. The rectangular area (about 100 yards by 200 yards, bordered by hills) naturally evolved into a marketplace, with sellers lured by the crowds. Over time, that central square became surrounded by buildings, then filled in with more buildings. There were stoas like the (reconstructed) Stoa of Attalos (above on the left), used for shops and offices; temples such as the Temple of Hephaistos; and government buildings. Imagine the square framed by these buildings—decorated with painted statues and friezes, fronted with columns of gleaming white marble, topped with red-tile roofs. The square itself was studded with trees and dotted with statues, fountains, and altars. Merchants sold goods from wooden market stalls.
The square buzzed with people—mostly men and lower-class working women, as the place was considered a bit vulgar for genteel matrons. Both men and women would be dressed in simple tunics (men’s were knee-length, women’s to the ankle). The Agora was the place to shop—to buy clothes, dishes, or to get your wagon wheel fixed. When a perishable product was available—for example, a catch of fresh fish—a certain bell was rung to announce its arrival. If you needed a zoning permit for your business, you came to the courthouse. You could make an offering to the gods at a number of temples and altars. At night, people attended plays and concerts, and nearby tavernas hummed with excited drinkers. Many people passed through here on their way to somewhere else, as this was the main intersection in town (and ancient Athens probably had a population of at least 100,000). On holidays, the procession ran down main street, the Panathenaic Way. At any time, this was the place to come to run into your friends, to engage in high-minded discussion with philosophers such as Socrates or Diogenes, or just to chat and hang out.
Now go to the long, intact, colonnaded building on your left (entrance at the south/far end).
This stoa—an ancient shopping mall—was originally built by the Greek-loving King Attalos II of Pergamon (in modern-day Turkey, 159-138 B.C.) as a thank-you gift for the education he’d received in Athens. That structure is long gone, and the building we see today is a faithful reconstruction built in the 1950s by the American School of Classical Studies.
This is a typical two-story stoa. Like many of the Agora’s buildings, it’s made of white Pentelic and gray-blue Hymettus marble from the quarries northeast of the city. The portico is supported on the ground floor by 45 Doric columns (outer layer) and 22 Ionic columns (inner layer). The upper story uses Ionic columns. This mix of Doric and Ionic was typical of buildings from the period.
Stoas, with their covered walkways, provided protection from sun and rain for shoppers and merchants. This one likely served as a commercial mall. The ground floor was divided by walls into 21 rooms that served as shops (it’s now the museum). Upstairs were offices (which today house more of the Agora Museum and research facilities of the American School of Classical Studies).
Stoa of Attalos—reconstructed “mall.”
The stoa now houses the Agora Museum.
Like malls of today, the Agora’s stoas were social magnets. Imagine ancient Greeks (their hard labor being done by slaves and servants) lounging here, enjoying the shade of the portico. The design of the pillars encourages people to lean against them (just as you may be doing right now)—with fluting starting only above six feet for the comfort of philosophers.
Inside, the Stoa of Attalos houses the...
This excellent little museum displays some choice rubble that helps bring the place to life. Before entering, enjoy the arcade. Near the fifth column, find the impressive sculpted head of a bearded man with a full head of hair. This Head of a Triton (c. A.D. 150) comes from one of the statues that decorated the Odeon of Agrippa. Three of his fellow statues are still standing (we’ll see them soon).
Walk halfway down the arcade and step inside the museum (included with your Agora ticket). Its modest but engaging collection fills a single long hall and part of the next level up. Look in the corner for the 1952 photo showing this spot before the reconstruction. This well-described chronological stroll through art from 3200 B.C. gives you a glimpse of life in ancient Athens. Along the hall on the left, big panels show the Agora and Acropolis during each age, allowing you to follow their physical evolution.
The first few cases show off jars from various eras, including Neolithic (when the Agora was first inhabited) and Geometric (1050-700 B.C.). Much of this exhibit shows how Greek pottery evolved over time. Pottery was a popular export product for the seafaring Greeks. The earliest pottery featured geometric patterns, then came floral and animal motifs, and finally painted human silhouettes—first showing black figures on the natural orange clay, then red figures on a black background. In case 26, look for the cute little baby’s commode, with a photo showing how it was used.
An ancient commode.
Clay ballot voting Aristides out of Athens.
Cases 30-32 (on right) hold items from early democracy. The “voting machine” (kleroterion, case 31) was used to choose judges. Citizens put their name in the slots, then black and white balls went into the tube to randomly select who would serve. Below are bronze ballots from the fourth century. The pottery shards with names painted on them (ostrakan, case 30) were used as ballots in voting to ostracize someone accused of corruption or tyranny. Find the ones marked ΘEMISΘOKLES NEOKLEOS (item #37) and ARISSTEIΔES (item #17). During the Golden Age, Themistocles and Aristides were rivals (in both politics and romance) who served Athens honorably, but were exiled in political power struggles.
In case 32, see the klepsydra (“water thief”)—a water clock used to time speeches at Council meetings. It took six minutes for the 1.7 gallons to drain out. A gifted orator truly was good to the last drop...but not a second longer.
Across the hall (under the banner, between cases 68 and 67) is the so-called “Stele of Democracy” (c. 336 B.C.). This stone monument is inscribed with a decree outlawing tyranny. Above, a relief carving shows Lady Democracy crowning a man representing the Athenian people.
Next to that (in case 67) is a bronze shield captured from defeated Spartans in the tide-turning Battle of Sphacteria, which gave Athens the upper hand in the first phase of the Peloponnesian War.
In the middle of the room, find the case of coins. These drachms and tetradrachms feature Athena with her helmet. In Golden Age times, a drachm was roughly a day’s wage. The ancients put coins like these in the mouth of a deceased person as payment for the underworld ferryman Charon to carry the soul safely across the River Styx. Coin #7, with the owl, was a four-drachm piece; that same owl is on Greece’s €1 coin today.
Exiting the museum at the far end of the arcade (where there’s a WC and a water fountain), backtrack to the southern end of the stoa (where you entered), then cross the main road and continue straight (west) along the lane, across the middle of the Agora. You’re walking alongside the vast ruins (on your left) of what once was the...
Stretching clear across the Agora, this was part of a large complex of what were likely shops and office buildings. It was a long, narrow rectangle (about 500 by 60 feet), similar to the reconstructed Stoa of Attalos you just left. You can still see the two lines of stubby column fragments that once supported the roof, a few stone steps, and (at the far end) some of the reddish foundation blocks. Constructed around 180 B.C., this stoa occupied what had been open space in the center of the Agora.
Midway down the lane (near the wooden ramp), you’ll come across a huge and frilly upper cap, or capital, of a column.
This capital (dating from the fourth century B.C.) once stood here atop a colossal column, one of a dozen columns that lined the monumental entrance to the Odeon of Agrippa, a theater that extended northward from the Middle Stoa. (We’ll learn more about the Odeon later.) The capital’s elaborate acanthus-leaf decoration is a nice example of the late Corinthian style. Rarely used in Greek buildings, the Corinthian style became wildly popular with the Romans.
From here look back toward the entrance, overlooking what was once the vacant expanse at the center of the Agora. In 400 B.C., there was no Middle Stoa and no Odeon—this was all open space. As Athens grew, the space was increasingly filled in with shops and monuments.
Continue westward across the Agora. Near the end of the Middle Stoa, you’ll see a gray well—still in its original spot and worn by the grooves of ropes. From here look up at the Acropolis, where the towering but empty pedestal once sported the Monument of Agrippa, a grand statue with four horses. Mars Hill, likely topped with tourists, is where the Apostle Paul famously preached the Gospel (described on here). Below the Erechtheion are broken columns shoring up the side of the hill. These were rubble from temples that were destroyed by the Persians. Just beyond the well to the right is a big drain and a round foundation—the tholos. Backtrack from the well a few steps to cross the wooden ramp, and go left to find the ditch that was once part of the...
This leaf-ornamented Corinthian capital once topped a column at the Roman-built Odeon.
Dug in the fifth century B.C. and still functioning today, these ditches channel rainwater runoff from the southern hills through the Agora. Here at the southwest corner of the Agora, two main collection ditches meet and join. You can see exposed parts of the stone-lined ditch. The well we just passed was also part of this system.
Passing across the ditch and through the line of shrubbery, take the left fork toward a 60-foot-across round footprint with a stubby column in its center. This is the...
This rotunda-shaped building was an assembly place for the administrators of Athens’ City Council. Built around 465 B.C., it originally had six inner Ionic columns that held up a conical roof. In the middle was an altar (marked today by the broken column).
The fundamental unit of Athenian democracy was the Assembly, made up of the thousands of adult male citizens who could vote. Athenian citizens were organized into 10 tribes; in order to prevent the people living in any one geographical area from becoming dominant, each tribe was composed of citizens from city, coastal, and inland areas. Each man in the Assembly was considered to be from one of these tribes.
All of Athens’ governing bodies met in the Agora. Though some Assembly meetings were held in the Agora’s main square, the main assemblies took place just uphill, on the slope of Pnyx Hill. The City Council also met in the Agora. The Council consisted of 500 men (50 from each of the 10 tribes) who were chosen from the Assembly by lottery to serve a one-year term. The Council proposed and debated legislation, but because Athens practiced direct (not representational) democracy, all laws eventually had to be approved by the whole Assembly. The Council chose 50 ministers who ran the day-to-day affairs.
As part of the civic center complex, the tholos served several functions. It was the headquarters, offices, and meeting hall for the 50 administrators. Many lived and ate here, since the law required that at least a third of these ministers be on the premises at all times (they served for terms of only 36 days). The tholos also housed the city’s official weights and measures. Any shopper in the Agora could use these to check whether a butcher or tailor was shortchanging them. As the center of government, the tholos of any ancient Greek city was also a kind of temple. The altar in the middle held an eternal flame, representing the hearth of the extended “family” that was Athens.
Beyond and above the tholos is the hill-capping Temple of Hephaistos. To reach it, climb the stairs to the left and go through the trees, pausing along the way at a viewpoint with a chart.
One of the best-preserved and most typical of all Greek temples, this is textbook Golden Age architecture. Started in 450 B.C.—just before the Parthenon—it was built at Athens’ peak as part of the massive reconstruction of the Agora after invading Persians destroyed the city (480 B.C.). But the temple wasn’t completed and dedicated until 415 B.C., as work stalled when the Greeks started erecting the great buildings of the Acropolis. Notice how the frieze around the outside of the building was only decorated on the side facing the Agora (it’s blank on the other three sides, as were most temples of this kind—the Parthenon is unusual for its continuous, wrap-around frieze).
This is classic “peristyle” temple (like the Parthenon), meaning that the building is surrounded by columns—six on each end, 13 on the long sides (counting the corners twice). Also like the Parthenon, it’s made of Pentelic marble in the Doric style, part of Pericles’ vision of harking back to Athens’ austere, solid roots. But the Temple of Hephaistos is only about half the size of the grand Parthenon and with fewer refinements (compared to the Parthenon’s elaborate carvings and fancy math).
The temple’s entrance was on the east end, facing the Agora. Priests would enter through the six columns here, crossing through a covered portico (note the coffered ceiling) and a three-sided alcove, called the pronaos or “pre-temple,” before reaching the central hall (cella). Large bronze statues of Hephaistos, the blacksmith god, and Athena, patroness of Athens and of arts and crafts, once stood in this central hall. In ancient times, metalworking and pottery shops surrounded the temple, but in the third century B.C. some were replaced with gardens, similar to today’s. Behind the cella (the west end) is another three-sided alcove, matching the pronaos.
The carved reliefs (frieze and metopes) that run around the upper part of the building are only partly done; some panels may have been left unfinished.
The well-preserved Temple of Hephaistos.
Frieze of centaurs battling humans.
At the end overlooking the Agora, look between the six columns and up at the frieze above the pronaos to find scenes of the mythical hero Theseus battling his enemies, trying to unite Athens. Theseus would go on to free Athens from the dominance of Crete by slaying the bull-headed Minotaur. The frieze decorations led Athenians to mistakenly believe that the temple once held the remains of Theseus—and to this day, they call it the Theseion.
Walk around behind the temple, to the far (west) end. The frieze above the three-sided alcove depicts the mythological battle between the Lapith tribe and centaurs during a wedding feast. Other scenes you’ll see around the building (there are many interpretations) include Hercules (his labors and deification) and the birth of Erichthonios (one of Athens’ first kings, who was born when spurned Hephaistos tried to rape Athena, spilled semen, and instead impregnated Gaia, the earth).
In the seventh century A.D., the temple was converted into the Church of Agios Georgios and given the vaulted ceiling that survives today. During the Ottoman occupation, the Turks kept the church open but permitted services to be held only once each year (on St. George’s Day). Because it was continually in use, the temple-turned-church is remarkably well-preserved—but notice the bullet holes, damage sustained mostly in the 1820s, when the Greeks resisted the Turks.
Note that there’s a “back door” exit nearby for those wanting to take the smooth, paved walkway up to the Acropolis, rather than the rough climb above the Agora. (To find the exit, face the back of the temple, turn right, and follow the path to the green gate, which deposits you on the inviting, café-lined Apostolou Pavlou pedestrian drag. From here you could turn left and walk up toward the Acropolis.)
But there’s still more to see in the Agora. Wind your way down the hill (northeast) and find the headless...
The first Roman emperor to wear a beard (previously a Greek fashion), Hadrian (r. A.D. 117-138) was a Grecophile and benefactor of Athens. Get close to this second-century A.D. statue and notice the insignia on the breastplate. There’s Romulus and Remus, being suckled by the she-wolf who supports Athena on her back. This was Hadrian’s vision—that by conquering Greece, Rome actually saved it. Hadrian was nicknamed Graecula (“The Little Greek”) for his love of Greek philosophy, literature, and a handsome Greek teenager named Antinous. Hadrian personally visited Athens, where he financed a comprehensive building program, including the Arch of Hadrian, Library of Hadrian, Temple of Olympian Zeus (which had been started by the Greeks), and a whole new master-planned neighborhood. (For more on these sights, see the 
Athens City Walk chapter or download my free audio tour.) Hadrian’s legacy endures. The main street through the Plaka is now called Adrianou—“Hadrian’s” street.
Roman emperor Hadrian loved Greek culture.
Triton fronting the Odeon of Agrippa.
Continuing on, head straight down the lane (to the left of Hadrian) and you’ll pass three giants on four pedestals, which once guarded the...
This theater/concert hall (a.k.a. the “Palace of the Giants”), once fronted by a line of six fierce Triton and Giant statues, was the centerpiece of the Agora during the Roman era.
A plaque explains the history of this building: During the Golden Age, this site was simply open space in the very center of the Agora. The odeon (a venue designed mainly for musical performances) was built by the Roman general and governor Marcus Agrippa in the time of Caesar Augustus (around 15 B.C.), when Greece was a Roman-controlled province. For the theater-loving Greeks and their Greek-culture-loving masters, the odeon was a popular place. Two stories tall and built into the natural slope of the hill, it could seat more than a thousand people.
Back then, the entrance was on the south side (near the Middle Stoa), and these Triton and Giant statues didn’t yet exist. Patrons entered from the south, walking through two rows of monumental columns, topped by Corinthian capitals. After the lobby, they emerged at the top row of a 20-tier, bowl-shaped auditorium, looking down on an orchestra and stage paved with multicolored marble and decorated with statues. The sightlines were great because the roof, spanning 82 feet, had no internal support columns. One can only assume that, in its heyday, the odeon hosted concerts, poetry readings, and more lowbrow Roman-oriented entertainment.
Around A.D. 150, the famously unsupported roof collapsed. By then, Athens had a bigger, better performance venue (the Odeon of Herodes Atticus, on the other side of the Acropolis—see here), so the Odeon of Agrippa was rebuilt at half the size as a 500-seat lecture hall. The new entrance was here on the north side, fronted by six colossal statues serving as pillars. Only two Tritons (with fish tails), a Giant (with a snake’s tail), and an empty pedestal remain.
The building was burned to the ground in the Herulian invasion of A.D. 267 (explained later, under “Post-Herulian Wall”). Around A.D. 400, a large palace was built here, which also served as the university (or “gymnasium,” which comes from the Greek word for “naked”—young men exercised in the buff during PE here). It lasted until the Constantinople-based Emperor Justinian closed all the pagan schools in A.D. 529. A plaque under the first statue gives more information.
Continue to the main road, where you’ll see we’ve made a loop. Now turn right and start up toward the Acropolis on the...
The Panathenaic Way was Athens’ main street. It started at the main city gate (the Dipylon Gate, near the Keramikos Cemetery), cut diagonally through the Agora’s main square, and wound up to the Acropolis—two-thirds of a mile in all. The Panathenaic Way was the primary north-south road, and here in the Agora it intersected with the main east-west road to the port of Piraeus. Though some stretches were paved, most of it (then as now) was just packed gravel. It was lined with important temples, businesses, and legal buildings.
During the Panathenaic Festival, held in the summer, this was the main parade route. Every four years on Athena’s birthday, Greeks celebrated by giving her statue a new dress, called a peplos. A wheeled float carrying the peplos was pushed up this street. Thousands participated—some on horseback, others just walking—while spectators watched from wooden grandstands erected along the way. When the parade reached the Acropolis, the new dress was ceremonially presented to Athena and used to adorn her life-size statue at the Erechtheion. Today’s tourists use the same path to connect the Agora and the Acropolis.
Continue up the Panathenaic Way, past the Stoa of Attalos. Along the left-hand side are several crude walls and column fragments.
This wall marks the beginning of the end of Roman Athens.
In A.D. 267, the barbarian Herulians sailed down from the Black Sea and utterly devastated Athens. (The crumbling Roman Empire was helpless to protect its provinces.) The Herulians burned most of the Agora’s buildings to the ground, leaving it in ashes.
As soon as the Herulians left, the surviving Athenians began hastily throwing up this wall—cobbled together from rubble—to keep future invaders at bay. They used anything they could find: rocks, broken columns, statues, frieze fragments, all thrown together without mortar to make a wall 30 feet high and 10 feet thick. Archaeologists recognize pieces scavenged from destroyed buildings, such as the Stoa of Attalos and the Odeon of Agrippa.
Up until this point, the Agora had always been rebuilt after invasions (such as the Persians in 480 B.C. and Romans in 89 B.C.); but after the Herulians, the Agora never recovered as a public space. What remained suffered through a Slavic invasion in A.D. 580. By A.D. 700, it was a virtual ghost town.
Next came the Christians. On the right is the...
This charming little church with the lantern-like dome marks the Agora’s revival. Built around A.D. 1000, it commemorates St. Paul’s teaching in the Agora (see information about Mars Hill on here). Under protection from the Christian rulers of Byzantium (in Constantinople, modern-day Istanbul), Athens—and the Agora—slowly recovered from centuries of invasions and neglect. The church was built on the ruins of an ancient nymphaeum, or temple atop a sacred spring, and became one of many Christian churches that served the booming populace of Byzantine Athens.
Post-Herulian wall to keep barbarians out.
Holy Apostles church adds a Christian layer.
This church was the prototype for later Athenian churches: a Greek-cross floor plan with four equal arms, topped by a dome and featuring windows with tall horseshoe-shaped arches. (The narthex, or entrance, was added later, spoiling the four equal arms.)
Enter (if the church is open) around the far side. It contains some interesting 17th-century Byzantine-style frescoes. The windows are in flower and diamond shapes. From the center, look up at Jesus as Pantocrator (“ruler over all”) at the top of the dome, and see the icon on the altar and the faded frescoes on the walls. Notice the remains of the marble altar screen with wide-open spaces—frames that once held icons.
Our tour is over. There are three exits: the gate through which you entered, at Adrianou street; the “back door” gate behind the Temple of Hephaistos; and the 14 south gate M next to the Church of the Holy Apostles. To go to the Acropolis, exit through the gate by the church and head straight up the hill.
