Handpicked experience · Athens
Athens, Greece
Half a day across the rock and the museum built to face it, where the top floor is laid out to the exact dimensions and compass bearing of the temple outside the window.
Visit the Acropolis Museum
Gain insight into the rich history of ancient Greece here
See artefacts illuminated by natural lights in the museum
Discover ancient settlements and sanctuaries underneath the museum
Reserved entry to the Acropolis Museum, so the queue is not part of your day
A guided visit to the Acropolis, taking in the Parthenon and the skyline around it
Guided sightseeing through central Athens, including the Parliament building and the National Garden
The original Parthenon sculptures and the museum's principal displays
A local guide setting out the history and pointing out where the photographs are
The Acropolis is a limestone outcrop that has been continuously important to Athens for around three and a half thousand years, and the museum below it opened in 2009 to hold what was taken off it. The two are meant to be seen together, and this is four hours doing exactly that, with a state-licensed guide, plus a look at the modern civic centre of the city.
The morning covers the ascent through the monumental gateway onto the summit plateau, the temples up there and the view across the basin of the city to the sea. Afterwards comes the museum a few hundred metres downhill, and then the streets around the square where the government sits.
The idea that makes the building work. The Parthenon Gallery is built to the same footprint as the temple's inner chamber and rotated to the same compass bearing, so the carved frieze runs around it in its original sequence and each panel faces the direction it faced when it was up there. The walls are glass, and through them, a few hundred metres uphill, is the actual building. You look at a panel and then at the place it came off.
You will notice immediately. Where a section of sculpture is missing, a plain white plaster cast stands in its place, next to honey-coloured marble that has spent two thousand years in Greek weather. Those absent pieces were removed in the early nineteenth century and are in London; Greece has requested their return for decades and the dispute is unresolved. The museum makes no argument in words. It simply does not disguise the joins.
Not slowly, as people assume. The Parthenon stood largely complete for more than two thousand years, serving in turn as temple, church and mosque. In 1687 a besieging Venetian army lobbed a mortar shell into it while the Ottoman garrison was using it to store gunpowder, and the middle of the building went up. Almost everything you see as ruin dates from that one explosion.
The practical warning that matters most. The path up and the summit plateau are bare limestone, polished to a shine by several million pairs of feet, and it is treacherous in ordinary shoes — worse when damp. Wear something with grip and take the ramp slowly.
Worth planning around in summer. There is no shade whatsoever on the summit and nowhere to refill water once you are up. On the hottest days the authorities now close the site through the middle of the day as a safety measure, typically from around noon until late afternoon, which can move your timings at short notice. An early start is the answer in July and August.
The city portion covers the square in front of the old royal palace, where the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier changes on the hour in a deliberately slow ceremonial step, and the garden behind it, laid out in 1839 as a private royal planting and now the one deeply shaded place in central Athens.
Open it to pick a date and work out the price.
What the fare covers, and what to budget for separately.
The practical detail, and the answers people actually ask for.
It matches the Parthenon's inner chamber in size and is turned to the same compass bearing, so the frieze runs in its original order with each panel facing the way it originally faced. The temple itself is visible through the glass.
They are plaster casts standing in for pieces removed in the early nineteenth century and now in London. The originals nearby are weathered honey-coloured marble. Greece has sought their return for decades and the matter is unsettled.
Something with grip. The path and the summit are bare limestone worn smooth by millions of visitors and it is slippery in smooth soles, particularly after rain.
In extreme heat, yes. The authorities shut the summit through the middle of the day on the hottest days as a safety measure, which can shift the schedule at short notice.
No shade at all on the summit and no refill points once you are up there. Carry water and a hat between May and September.
Mostly not. It stood largely intact for over two millennia until 1687, when a Venetian shell struck the Ottoman gunpowder store inside it. The damage you see is largely from that one event.