2 Best Sights in Athens, Greece

You don't have to look far in Athens to encounter perfection. Towering above all—both physically and spiritually—stands the Acropolis, a millennia-old survivor. The Greek term Akropolis means High City, and today's traveler who climbs this table-like hill is paying tribute to the prime source of Western civilization. Astounding at night, this amazing monument has been lit up with nearly seven hundred LED lights and every monument on the Acropolis can now be relished in a luminescent golden glow.

Most of the notable structures on this flat-top limestone outcrop, 512 feet high, were built from 461 to 429 BC, when the intellectual and artistic life of Athens flowered under the influence of the Athenian statesman Pericles. Since then, the buildings of the Acropolis have undergone transformations into, at various times, a Florentine palace, an Islamic mosque, and a Turkish harem. They have also weathered the hazards of wars, right up to 1944, when British paratroopers positioned their bazookas between the Parthenon's columns. Today, the Erechtheion temple has been completely restored, and conservation work on the Parthenon is ongoing, focusing now on the western side. With most of the major restoration work now completed, a visit to the Acropolis evokes the spirit of the ancient heroes and gods who were once worshipped here. The sight of the Parthenon—the Panathenaic temple at the crest of this ieros vrachos (sacred rock)—has the power to stir the heart as few other ancient relics do.

The walk through the Acropolis takes about 4 hours, depending on the crowds, including an hour spent in the New Acropolis Museum. In general, the earlier you start out the better—in summer the heat is blistering by noon and the light's reflection off the rock and marble ruins is almost blinding. Remember to bring water, sunscreen, nonslip footwear, and a hat to protect yourself from the sun. An alternative, in summer, is to visit after 5 pm, when the light is best for taking photographs. The two hours before sunset, when the fabled violet light occasionally spreads from the crest of Mt. Hymettus and embraces the Acropolis, is an ideal time to visit in any season. In recent years, because of extreme temperatures, the site has sometimes closed early in high season to protect visitors and staff; check opening hours to avoid disappointment. 

You enter the Acropolis complex through the Beulé Gate, a late-Roman structure named for the French archaeologist who discovered the gate in 1852. Before Roman times, the entrance to the Acropolis was a steep ramp below the Temple of Athena Nike that was used every fourth year for the Panathenaic procession, a spectacle that honored Athena's remarkable birth; she sprang from the head of her father, Zeus. When you enter the gate, ask for the free, information-packed bilingual (in English and Greek) pamphlet guide.

At the loftiest point of the Acropolis stands the Parthenon, the architectural masterpiece conceived by Pericles and executed between 447 and 438 BC. It not only raised the bar in terms of sheer size, but also in the perfection of its proportions. Dedicated to the goddess Athena (the name comes from the Athena Parthenos, the virgin Athena), the Parthenon served primarily as the treasury of the Delian League, an ancient alliance of cities formed to defeat the Persian incursion. In fact, the Parthenon was built as much to honor the city's power as to venerate the goddess. After the Persian army sacked Athens in 480–479 BC, the city-state banded with Sparta, and together they routed the Persians by 449 BC. To proclaim its hegemony over all Greece, Athens then set about constructing its Acropolis, ending a 30-year building moratorium.

Once you pass through the Beulé Gate you will find the Temple of Athena Nike. Designed by Kallikrates, the mini-temple was built in 427–424 BC to celebrate peace with Persia. The bas-reliefs on the surrounding parapet depict the Victories leading heifers to be sacrificed.

Past the temple, the imposing Propylaea structure was designed to instill the proper reverence in worshippers as they crossed from the temporal world into the spiritual world of the sanctuary, for this was the main function of the Acropolis. The Propylaea was intended to have been the same size as the Parthenon, and thus the grandest secular building in Greece, but construction was suspended during the Peloponnesian War and it was never finished. The structure shows the first use of the Attic style, which combines both Doric and Ionic columns. The building's slender Ionic columns had elegant capitals, some of which have been restored along with a section of the famed paneled ceiling, originally decorated with gold eight-pointed stars on a blue background. Adjacent to the Pinakotheke, or art gallery (which has paintings of scenes from Homer's epics and mythological tableaux), the south wing is a decorative portico (row of columns). The view from the inner porch of the Propylaea is stunning: the Parthenon is suddenly revealed in its full glory, framed by the columns.

If the Parthenon is the masterpiece of Doric architecture, the Erechtheion is undoubtedly the prime exemplar of the more graceful Ionic order. A considerably smaller structure than the Parthenon, it outmatches, for sheer elegance and refinement of design, all other buildings of the Greco-Roman world. For the populace, the Erechtheion, completed in 406 BC, remained Athena's holiest shrine, for legend has it that Poseidon plunged his trident into the rock on this spot, dramatically producing a spring of water, while Athena created a simple olive tree, whose produce remains a main staple of Greek society. A panel of judges declared the goddess the winner, and the city was named Athena. The most delightful feature is the south portico, known as the Caryatid Porch. It is supported on the heads of six maidens (caryatids) wearing delicately draped Ionian garments. What you see at the site today are copies; the originals are in the New Acropolis Museum.

Most people take the metro to the Acropolis station, where the Acropolis Museum is just across the main exit. They then follow the Dionyssiou Aeropagitou, the pedestrianized street that traces the foothill of the Acropolis to its entrance at the Beulé Gate. Another entrance is along the rock's northern face via the pretty Peripatos, a paved path from the Plaka district. The summit of the Acropolis can also now be reached by people with disabilities via an elevator.

Daily visitors are now limited, and you must purchase a timed ticket to ensure entry to the Acropolis; this is best done in advance to ensure your admission at your preferred time. Don't throw away your Acropolis ticket after your tour. It will get you into all the other sites in the Unification of Archaeological Sites for 5 days—at no extra cost. Guides to the Acropolis are quite informative and will also help kids understand the site better.

The city's commercial center from the 1st century BC to the 4th century AD, the Roman Market was a large rectangular courtyard with a peristyle that provided shade for the arcades of shops. Its most notable feature is the west entrance's Bazaar Gate, or Gate of Athena Archegetis, completed around AD 2; the inscription records that it was erected with funds from Julius Caesar and Augustus. Halfway up one solitary square pillar behind the gate's north side, an edict inscribed by Hadrian regulates the sale of oil, a reminder that this was the site of the annual bazaar where wheat, salt, and oil were sold. On the north side of the Roman Agora stands one of the few remains of the Turkish occupation, the Fethiye (Victory) Mosque. The eerily beautiful mosque was built in the late 15th century on the site of a Christian church to celebrate the Turkish conquest of Athens and to honor Mehmet II (the Conqueror). During the few months of Venetian rule in the 17th century, the mosque was converted to a Roman Catholic church; it is now closed to the public.

Surrounded by a cluster of old houses on the western slope of the Acropolis, the world-famous Tower of the Winds (Aerides) is now open to the public for visits. Located inside the Roman Agora, it is the most appealing and well preserved of the Roman monuments of Athens, keeping time since the 1st century BC. It was originally a sundial, water clock, and weather vane topped by a bronze Triton with a metal rod in his hand, which followed the direction of the wind. Its eight sides face the direction of the eight winds into which the compass was divided; expressive reliefs around the tower personify these eight winds, called I Aerides (the Windy Ones) by Athenians. Note the north wind, Boreas, blowing on a conch, and the beneficent west wind, Zephyros, scattering blossoms.