39 Best Sights in Athens, Greece

Located on one of the ancient city's grandest avenues (which once linked the Theater of Dionysus with the Agora), this tempietto-like monument is a delightfully elegant jewel of the Corinthian style. It was originally built (335–334 BC) by a choregos (theatrical producer) as the support for the tripod (a three-footed vessel used as a prize) he won for sponsoring the best play at the nearby Theater of Dionysus. Six of the earliest Corinthian columns are arranged in a circle on a square base, topped by a marble dome from which rise acanthus leaves. In the 17th century the exceedingly picturesque monument was incorporated into a Capuchin monastery where Byron stayed while writing part of "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage." The monument was once known as the Lantern of Demosthenes because it was incorrectly believed to be where the famous orator practiced speaking with pebbles in his mouth in an effort to overcome his stutter.

One of Athens's oldest neoclassical buildings became the new home of the city's Municipal Art Collection in 2010. The former silk factory, designed in 1833 by Danish architect Hans Christian Hansen, now houses almost 3,000 important art works from leading 19th- and 20th-century mainly Greek artists (most of the works were acquired during the 1930s and ’40s). The museum also hosts archaeological and cultural tours.

An entertaining crash course in the development of Greek music, from regional dimotika (folk) to rembetika (blues), this museum has three floors of instruments. Headphones are available so you can appreciate the sounds made by such unusual delights as goatskin bagpipes and discern the differences in tone between the Pontian lyra and Cretan lyra, string instruments often featured on world-music compilations.

After making the rounds of the ancient sites, you might think that Greek history ground to a halt when the Byzantine Empire collapsed. A visit to this gem of a museum, housed in the spectacularly majestic Old Parliament mansion (used by parliamentarians from 1875 to 1932), will fill in the gaps, often vividly, as with Lazaros Koyevina's copy of Eugene Delacroix's Massacre of Chios, to name but one example. Paintings, costumes, and assorted artifacts from small arms to flags and ships' figureheads are arranged in a chronological display tracing Greek history from the mid-16th century and the Battle of Lepanto through World War II and the Battle of Crete. A small gift shop near the main entrance—framed by a very grand neoclassical portico of columns—has unusual souvenirs, like a deck of cards featuring Greece's revolutionary heroes.

In the sea of concrete that is Central Athens, this imposing group of white marble buildings, known as the Athenian Trilogy, gleams majestically under perfect azure skies like an illusion of classical antiquity. The three dramatic buildings belonging to the University of Athens were designed by the Hansen brothers in the period after independence in the 19th century and are built of Pendelic marble, with tall columns and decorative friezes. In the center is the University, after which Panepistimiou (panepistimio means university) Street is named, with its huge colorful mural. To the right is the Academy, flanked by two slim columns topped by statues of Athena and Apollo; paid for by the Austro-Greek Baron Sina, it is a copy of the Parliament in Vienna. Frescoes in the reception hall depict the myth of Prometheus. At the left end of the complex is a griffin-flanked staircase leading to the National Library, which has been housed in the building since 1903 and contains more than 2 million Greek and foreign-language volumes; the books are now being transferred to their new home, the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center.

At the top of the city's main square stands the Greek Parliament, formerly King Otto's royal palace, completed in 1838 for the new monarchy. It seems a bit austere and heavy for a southern landscape, but it was proof of progress, the symbol of the new ruling power. The building's saving grace is the stone's magical change of color from off-white to gold to rosy-mauve as the day progresses. Here you can watch the Changing of the Evzones Guards at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier—in front of Parliament on a lower level—which takes place at intervals throughout the day. On a wall behind the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, the bas-relief of a dying soldier is modeled after a sculpture on the Temple of Aphaia in Aegina; the text is from the funeral oration said to have been given by Pericles.

Pop into the gleaming Syntagma metro station to examine artfully displayed artifacts uncovered during subway excavations. A floor-to-ceiling cross section of earth behind glass shows finds in chronological layers, ranging from a skeleton in its ancient grave to traces of the 4th-century BC road to Mesogeia to an Ottoman cistern.

This is the capital's key zone for mass demonstrations and protests, Christmas celebrations (the city's tree is set up here), and political speeches. It is increasingly a hot spot for shopping or a rendezvous at the many nearby trendy cafés, top notch restaurants, and a growing number of ethnic street food places.

Gazi, the neighborhood surrounding this former 19th-century-gasworks-turned-arts-complex, takes its name from the toxic gas fumes that used to spew from the factory's smokestacks. Today Gazi district is synonymous with an intellectual gallery scene and buzzy nightlife, with a special LGBT-friendly zone to boot. The smokestacks are now glowing crimson referential landmarks anchoring a burgeoning stretch that runs from the central neighborhood of Kerameikos to the once-decrepit neighborhood of Rouf. Since the city of Athens bought the disused gasworks in the late 1990s, it was converted, retaining the original brick architecture, into Technopolis, where large art exhibitions and events centered on gastronomy, social history, lifestyle, and culture (like the annual European Jazz Festival) regularly take place, and where the Industrial Gas Museum is housed.

Begun in the 6th century BC, this gigantic temple was completed in AD 132 by Hadrian, who also commissioned a huge gold-and-ivory statue of Zeus for the inner chamber and another, only slightly smaller, of himself. Only 15 of the original Corinthian columns remain, but standing next to them may inspire a sense of awe at their bulk, which is softened by the graceful carving on the acanthus-leaf capitals. The site is floodlit on summer evenings, creating a majestic scene when you turn round the bend from Syngrou Avenue. On the outskirts of the site to the north are remains of Roman houses, the city walls, and a Roman bath. Hadrian's Arch lies just outside the enclosed archaeological site.

It was on this spot in the 6th century BC that the Dionysia festivals took place; a century later, dramas such as Sophocles's Oedipus Rex and Euripides's Medea were performed for the entire population of the city. Visible are foundations of a stage dating from about 330 BC, when it was built for 15,000 spectators as well as the assemblies formerly held on Pnyx. In the middle of the orchestra stood the altar to Dionysus; a fantastic throne in the center was reserved for the priest of Dionysus. On the hillside above the theater stand two columns, vestiges of the little temple erected in the 4th century BC by Thrasyllus the Choragus.