Places to Explore

• The Acropolis and Environs

  Although Athens, together with its suburbs and port, sprawls across the plain for more than 150 square mi, most of its ancient monuments cluster around the Acropolis, which rises like a massive sentinel... (more)

• The Ancient Agora, Monastiraki, and Thission

  The Times Square, Piccadilly Circus, and St. Basil's Square of ancient Athens, the Agora was once the focal point of urban life. All the principal urban roads and country highways traversed it; the procession... (more)

• From Central Athens to National Archaeological Museum

  ... Downtown Athens is an unlikely combination of the squalid and the grand: the cavernous, chaotic Central Market, which replaced the bazaar in Monastiraki when it burned down in 1885, is 10 minutes from... (more)

• Plaka and Anafiotika

  Fanning north from the slopes of the Acropolis, picturesque Plaka is the last corner of 19th-century Athens. Set with Byzantine accents provided by churches, the "Old Town" district extends north to Ermou... (more)

• Syntagma Square to Kolonaki

  Dressed in their foustanella (pleated skirts), the Evzone guards standing on duty at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier; Queen Amalia's National Garden, built as an oasis of green in a desert of marble; a... (more)