Insight Guides Pocket Athens (Travel Guide eBook)

Insight Guides

• Editore: Insight Guides
• Anno: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781786717702
• Argomento: Personal Development
• Categoria: Travel

Athens - 'the cradle of civilisation' - is one of the world's most fascinating and historic capitals, boasting some of Europe's most dazzling ancient monuments. Athens may have had its share of recent socio-economic problems, but its vibrant nightlife and rich culture make it an enduring must-see destination. Insight Pocket Guide Athens is a concise, full-colour travel guide that combines lively text with vivid photography to highlight the best that this evocative city has to offer.

Where To Go details all the key sights in the city, while handy maps on the cover flaps help you find your way around, and are cross-referenced to the text.
Top 10 Attractions gives a run-down of the best sights to take in on your trip.
Perfect Day provides an itinerary of the best things to do in one day in Athens.
What To Do is a snapshot of ways to spend your spare time, from enjoying drinks in a chic Athenian bar to the best theatre, cinema and music spots.
Essential information on Athenian culture, including a brief history of the city.
Eating Out covers the city's best cuisine.
Curated listings of the best hotels and restaurants.
A-Z of all the practical information you'll need.

Where To Go

Viewed from the air – or from the heights of the Acropolis or Mount Lykavitós – Athens is a sprawling maze of apartment blocks and office buildings stretching to the horizon. Yet central Athens is remarkably compact. Most major sites are within walking distance of one another, while the metro and bus systems provide inexpensive, reliable transport for those who become footsore.

Ancient remains and worthwhile museums are scattered across the central area. Athens has grown incrementally over time, resulting in numerous districts, each with its own particular character. This guide divides the city into a number of sections, covering the ancient centre first and then moving out in a clockwise spiral through the other important neighbourhoods.

Ancient Athens was focused on the Acropolis, with sacred temples built atop the rock and the town spread out below. Today the area is still replete with Greek and Roman remains, albeit interspersed with later buildings – a fascinating mixture of neoclassical mansions and terraced cottages dating back to Ottoman times. This area, Pláka, is one of the most charming parts of Athens.

Athens and the Acropolis lit up at night

Getty Images

The Acropolis

It’s impossible to overestimate the importance of the Acropolis 1 [map] (daily Apr–Oct 8am–6.30pm, Nov–Mar until 5pm) to the ancient Greeks. The religious significance of this sheer-sided rock, looming 90m (300ft) above Athens, was paramount, and the buildings on the summit still embody the essence of classical Greek architecture. You can see these temples from most parts of the city – particularly at night when they are beautifully lit – which adds to the feeling that this small area is still the heart of Athens. The name ‘Acropolis’ derives from the Greek words ákro, meaning ‘highest point’, and pólis, meaning town.

Exploring the Acropolis

Maria Kutrakova/Fotolia

Try to visit early or late in the day to avoid the tour groups, or on Mondays, when most tours don’t operate; wear comfortable rubber-soled shoes as there are slippery stones worn smooth over the centuries and numerous uneven areas where heels can catch.

Once past the ticket office, a path leads to the summit of the Acropolis – a relatively flat plateau around 320m by 130m (1,050ft by 425ft) in area. This steep incline is the last section of the original route taken by the Panathenaic procession up to the statue of Athena (for more information, click here).

Used for strategic purposes throughout the Mycenaean and Archaic periods, the rock was easy to defend. It had spring water and superb views of the surrounding area. The first religious structures appeared at the end of the 6th century BC, though these early temples were destroyed by the Persians under Xerxes in 480 BC. The Athenians left the gutted temples untouched for three decades and were only persuaded by Pericles to undertake a reconstruction programme in 449 BC.

Pericles commissioned the Parthenon, the Erechtheion, the Temple of Athena Nike and the Propylaea, taking advantage of a new marble quarry on Mount Pendéli (Pentele to the ancients); the marble thus became known as Pentelic. When the Romans took control of Athens they embellished the site with small additions, but the decline of Roman power left the Acropolis vulnerable to attack and vandalism. The rock reverted to its earliest use as a strategic stronghold during Ottoman rule. Large quantities of stone from the temples were used for construction of bastions and domestic buildings.

Following Greek independence in the 19th century, a zealous restoration project saw the removal of all medieval and Ottoman structures on the Acropolis, and inaugurated archaeological studies of the ancient remains. These continue to the present day.

A Greek who’s who

As the cradle of democracy, history, philosophy, drama and comedy, it’s not surprising that Athens was the birthplace of some of the most illustrious figures in ancient history. Here are just a few:

Socrates (c. 469–399 BC): philosopher and orator who pursued truth through dialectic discourse.

Plato (c. 428–347 BC): student of Socrates, political and religious philosopher; founded his own academy of higher study.

Aristotle (384–322 BC): philosopher; student at Plato’s academy and tutor to Alexander the Great.

Herodotos (484–425 BC): ‘Father of history’; wrote thorough accounts of the early Persian wars and dynastic struggles in Asia Minor.

Thucydides (c. 460–400 BC): chronicled the Peloponnesian Wars with the first analytical methodology for recording history.

Pericles (c. 495–429 BC): Athenian statesman during the city’s Golden Age; responsible for construction of the Parthenon.

Kallikrates and Iktinos: architects of the Parthenon (447–432 BC).

Pheidias (c. 490–430 BC) and Praxiteles: sculptors.

Aiskhylos (525–456 BC), Sophokles (497–406 BC) and Euripides (480–406 BC): great tragic dramatists; Euripides in particular wrote plays about ordinary mortals rather than mortals interacting with gods.

Aristophanes (448–385 BC): originator of Greek comedy.

The Propylaea and around

As you make your way up towards the Propylaea (gateway) you will pass through the Beule Gate A [map], built as part of a 3rd-century AD defensive wall. This gate was revealed only in 1853, underneath an Ottoman bastion. Immediately past this stands the jewelbox-like Athena Nike temple B [map], among the earliest Periclean projects, with four Ionic columns at the front and rear; since the millennium it has been completely reconstructed, using original masonry chunks. In myth, King Aegeus leapt to his death from here upon spying the ship of his son Theseus, who had neglected to change his sails from black to white as a sign of having successfully vanquished the Cretan Minotaur.

More like a temple than a gateway, the monumental Propylaea C [map] was a sign of things to come, built to impress visitors. It retains this ability in modern times, even though the structure was never actually completed. Construction commenced in 437 BC to a plan by the brilliant Athenian architect Mnesikles. A series of six Doric columns marks the transition into the Propylaea, beyond which there are four symmetrical rooms, two on either side of the walkway. Two rows of three Ionic columns (this was the first building to incorporate both styles of column) support the roof, whose coffered ceiling was originally painted as a heavenly scene. The five heavy wooden doors along the walkway would have heightened the anticipation of ancient pilgrims, as each would be opened in turn. The only room to have been completed was the second on the northern side. This was used as a refuge for visitors to the Acropolis and also, according to the 2nd-century AD travelling geographer Pausanias, as a picture gallery (Pinakotheke), since its walls were covered with panels and frescoes.

Just beyond the Propylaea, you will find on your right remains of the Sanctuary of Artemis Brauronia D [map], founded in the 4th century BC.

Optical illusion

There are no straight lines anywhere in the Parthenon; the ancient designers deliberately used a technique known as entasis, with gradual curves in lintels, stairways or pediments, and columns with bulging centres. This sophisticated optical illusion leaves the impression that the building is in fact completely squared on the vertical and horizontal.

The Parthenon

The Parthenon E [map] is one of the most recognisable buildings in the world. The series of columns supporting pe...