Acropolis, what else. No matter how cliché that might be, you can’t just ignore the icon of power and wealth of Athens, during the golden age of Pericles!
Take a small bottle of water in your What Athens bag, put on your favorite flat shoes and be sure that you have your hat and suntan cream with you. Is your camera’s battery charged? You can’t imagine the view!
What you’ll see on the hill:
- The Propylaia, the great entrance
- The Temple of Athena Nike, where they used to keep the cult statue of Athena with no wings, so that she could never leave the city
- The Parthenon, the greatest sanctuary of ancient Athens, dedicated to, who else, the patron of the city, goddess Athena
- The Erechtheion, with the worldwide famous Caryatids
Since you’ re there, you can also visit two theatres on the slope of the Acropolis:
- The Theater of Dionysus, one of the world’s oldest theaters that gave birth to the Greek Tragedy
- The Odeon of Herodes Atticus, originally built in 161 AD and restored in the 1950s. Today, it’s the main venue of the Athens Festival. If you have an opportunity to see any performance there, don’t miss it!
Acropolis, through the years, had many “faces”. The Parthenon, after the 5th century AD, was converted into a church, dedicated to Virgin Mary and then later, under the Turks, it became a mosque. It was even bombarded, in 1687, by the Venetians, whereas in the early 19th century, Lord Elgin took marbles, statues and other significant pieces of the temple’s sculptural decoration, in order to sell them to the British Museum.
What are you waiting for? Even if Parthenon is still under a lot of restoration, you’ ll love that Sacred Hill!
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