Panathenaic Stadium Ticket with Audio Guide

The Panathenaic Stadium is the only stadium in the world built entirely of marble. It stands on the site of the ancient stadium, and it is where the first modern Olympic Games were held. Your ticket includes an audio guide, so the history comes with you.

You go in at ground level and onto the track itself. It is a long, narrow U — nothing like a modern oval — and running the straight is what almost everybody does first. The turn at the closed end is impossibly tight, which tells you more about ancient racing than any label could.

The marble tiers rise steeply on both sides, and you can climb them. Halfway up on the south side is the royal seat, and the view from it, straight down the axis of the track, is the one the stadium was designed around.

The audio guide takes you through the ancient games, the nineteenth-century restoration that rebuilt the stadium in marble, and the 1896 Olympics. It runs at your own pace — stop it, walk, start it again.

It is an open site with almost no shade, and white marble in Athenian sun is fierce — hat, water, and early or late rather than midday. The tiers are steep, so take the climb steadily. It sits beside the National Gardens, an easy walk from the centre.