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ATHENS TRAVEL GUIDE
Athens has been inhabited continuously for over 7000 years. Its acropolis, protected by a ring of mountains and commanding views of all approaches from the sea, was a natural choice for prehistoric settlement.
It's development into a city-state and artistic centre reached its zenith in the fifth century BC with a flourish of art, architecture, literature and philosophy that pervaded Western culture forever after.
Since World War II, the city's population has risen from 700,000 to four million - and is now home to more than a third of the country's population.
The speed of this process is reflected in the city's chaotic mix of retro and contemporary: cutting edge clothes shops and designer bars stand by the remnants of the Ottoman bazaar, and crumbling Neo-classical mansions are dwarfed by brutalist 1960's apartment blocks.
The ancient sites are only the most obvious of Athens' attractions. There are attractive cafes, landscaped stair-streets, and markets; startling views from the hills of Lykavitos and Filopappou; and, around the food of the Acropolis, scattered monuments of the Byzantine, medieval and nineteenth-century town.
THE CITY
Plaka is the best place to begin exploring the city. One of the few parts of Athens with charm and architectural merit, its narrow winding streets and stairs are lined with nineteenth-century Neo-classical houses.
An attractive approach is to follow Odhos Kydhathineon, a pedestrian walkway starting on Odhos Filellinon, south of Syddagma. It continues through cafe-crowded Platia Filomoussou Eterias to Odhos Adhrianou, which runs nearly the whole east-west length of Plaka from Hadrian's Arch to the Thission.
The downhill, northerly section of Adhrianou is largely commercial as far as the Roman Forum. But a few steps south from Kydhathineon, there's a quiet and attractive sitting space around the fourth-century-BC Monument of Lysikrates, erected to celebrate the success of a prize-winning dramatic chorus.
Continuing straight ahead from the Kydhathineon-Adhrianou intersection up Odhos Thespidhos, you reach the edge of the Acropolis precinct.
Up to the right, the whitewashed Cycladic houses of Anafiotida cheerfuly proclaim an architect-free zone amidst the highest crags of the Acropolis rock.
THE ACROPOLIS
A rugged limestone plateau, watered by springs and rising an abrupt 100m out of the plain of Attica, the Acropolis was one of the earliest settlements in Greece, drawing a Neolithic community to its slopes around 5000 BC.
In Mycenaean times it was fortified around a royal palace and temples where the cult of Athena was introduced. During the ninth-century-BC, it became the heart of the first Greek city-state, and in the wake of Athenian military supremacy and a peace treaty with the Persians in 449 BC, Pericles had the complex reconstructed under the directions of architect and sculptor Pheidias, producing most of the monuments visible today, including the Parthenon.
Having survived more or less intact for over two thousand years, the Acropolis finally fell victim to the demands of war.
In 1687 besieging Venetians ignited a Turkish gunpowder magazine in the Parthenon, blasting off the roof, and in 1801, Lord Elgin removed the frieze (the "Elgin Marbles"), which he later sold to the British Museum.
Meanwhile, generations of visitors have slowly worn down the Parthenon's surfaces; and, more recently, smog has been turning the marble to dust.
"Since 1981, visitors have been barred from the Parghenon's precinct, and a major restoration programme is proceeding sporadically; scaffolding and cranes may obscure the view."
THE PARTHENON AND AROUND
The Parthenon was the first great building in Pericles' plan. Designed by Iktinos, it utilizes all the refinements available to the Doric order of architecture to achieve an extraordinary and unequalled harmony.
Built on the site of earlier temples, it was intended as a new sanctuary for Athena and a house for her cult image, a colossal wooden statue decked in ivory and gold plate that was designed by Pheidias and considered one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World; the sculpture was lost in ancient times, but its characteristics are known through later copies.
"Parthenon" means "virgins' chamber" and initially referred only to a room at the west end of the temple occupied by the priestesses of Athena.
To the north of the Parthenon stands the Erechtheion, the last of the great works of Pericles. Here, in symbolic reconciliation, Athena and the city's old patron Poseidon-Erechtheus were both worshipped.
On the south side, in the Porch of the Caryatids, the Ionic line is transformed into six maidens (caryatids) holding the entablature on their heads.
Placed discreetly on a level below that of the main monuments, the Acropolis Museum contains nearly all of the portable objects removed from the Acropolis since 1834.
THE WEST AND SOUTH SLOPES
Rock-hewn stairs immediately below the entrance to the Acropolis ascend the low hill of the Areopagus, site of the court of criminal justice. Following the road or path over the flank of the Acropolis, you come out onto pedestrianized Dhionysiou Aeropayitou, by the Odeion of Herodes Atticus.
Turning right, a network of paths leads up Filopappou Hill, its summit capped by a grandiose monument to a Roman senator and consul, Filopappos.
Just north to the main path, which follows a line of truncated ancient walls, is the church of Ayios Dhimitrios, with Byzantine frescoes.
Above the church, further to the north, rises the Hill of the Pnyx, a meeting place in classical times for the democratic assembly.
The second-century Roman Odeion of Herodes Atticus, restored for performances of music and classical drama during the summer festival (the only time it's open), dominates the south slope of the Acropolis hill. The main interest here - abouts lies in the earlier Greek sites to the east, pre-eminent among which is the Theatre of Dionysos, beside the main site entrance on Dhionysiou Areopayitou.
One of the most evocative locations in the city, it was here that the masterpieces of Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides and Aristophanes were first performed. The ruins are impressive; the theatre, rebuilt in the fourth-century BC, could hold some 17,000 spectators.
THE AGORA AND ROMAN FORUM
Northwest of the Acropolis, the Agora was the nexus of ancient Athenian city life, where the various claims of administration, commerce, market and public assembly competed for space.
The site is a confused jumble of ruins, dating from various stages of building between the sixth-century BC and the fifth-century AD. For some idea of what you are surveying, the place to head for is the museum, housed in the rebuilt Stoa of Attalos.
In the far corner, of the agora precinct sits the nearly intact but distinctly clunky Doric Temple of Hephaistos, otherwise known as the Thission from the exploits of Theseus depicted on its friezes.
The Roman Forum, or Roman agora, was built as an extension of the Hellenistic agora by Julius Caesar and Augustus. The best-preserved and easily the most intriguing of the ruins, though, is the graceful octagonal structure known as the Tower of the Winds.
Designed in the first-century BC by a Syrian astronomer, and served as a compass, sundial, weather vane and water clock powered by a stream from one of the Acropolis springs.
Each face of the tower is adorned with a relief of a figure floating through the air, personifying the eight winds.
SYNDAGMA SQUARE, THE NATIONAL GARDENS AND LYKAVITOS
All roads lead to Platia Syndagmatos - Syndagma Square - with its busy metro station. Geared to tourism, with a main post office, banks. luxury hotels, American Express, airline and travel offices grouped around, it has convenience but not much else to recommend it.
Behind the parliament buildings on the square, the National Gardens provide the most refreshing spot in the city, a luxuriant tangle of trees, shrubs and creepers, whose shade, duck ponds, cafes and sparkling irrigation channels bring relief from the heat and pollution of summer.
At the southern end of the park stands Hadrian's Arch, erected by the Roman emperor to mark the edge of the classical city and the beginning of his own.
Directly behind are the sixteen surviving columns of the 104 that originally comprised the Temple of Olympian Zeus - the largest in Greece, dedicated by Hadrian in 131 AD.
At the northeastern corner of the National Gardens is the fascination and much-overlooked Benaki Museum, Koumbari 1 (Monday - Saturday 9am - 5pm, Thursday till midnight, Sunday 9am - 3pm, free on Thursday), with a collection that features Mycenaean jewellery, Greek costumes, memorabilia of the Greek War of Independence and historical documents, engravings and paintings.
Taking the second left off Vassilisis Sofias after the Benaki Museum will bring you to the Museum of Cycladic and Ancient Greek Art, Neofitou Dhouka 4 (Monday - Friday 10am - 4pm, Saturday 10am - 3pm), which in the quality of its display methods is streets ahead of anything else in Athens.
North, past the posh shopping district of Kolonaki, a funicular at the corner of Dhoras Khistria and Ploutarhou (daily 8:45/10:30am - 12:20am) begins its ascent to the summit of Lykavitos.
The principal path up the hill begins here, too, rambling up through the woods. On top, the chapel of Ayios Yeoryios provides the main focus.
There's a cafe on the adjacent terrace and another, more pleasant one, halfway down; both have views spectacular enough to excuse the high prices. |
