Private 4-hour Walking Tour Of Acropolis And Acropolis Museum In Athens

Situated in a strategic location capable of dominating every corner of the city, on a hill 156 meters above sea level, the Acropolis of Athens is the most important and best known site in all of Greece. The most famous myths of ancient Athens, its major religious festivals, the first cults and several decisive events in the history of the city are related to this sacred and formerly walled and fortified enclosure. The monuments of the Acropolis are in harmony with their natural surroundings. These unique masterpieces of ancient architecture combine different orders and styles of classical art in the most innovative way and have influenced art and culture for many centuries. The ruins of the Acropolis have been under restoration since the independence of Greece. During a visit to the Acropolis you will be transported back to the peak of ancient Greek splendor. See the following highlights of the sites you can visit all over the Acropolis slopes.

It is the current access gate to the Acropolis, and is located west of the Propylaea. It was built in the 3rd century AD to protect the sacred precinct, possibly after the destructive invasion of the Herulians. Together with another gate located under the tower of Athena Nike, it was built into a strong fortification wall erected to the west of the Propylaea. The gate was named after the French archaeologist who investigated this area in 1852. The gate is framed to the north and south by two rectangular towers. Both the gate and the towers are made of building material reused from earlier structures, such as the choregic monument of Nikias (late 4th century BC), which stood on the southern slope of the Acropolis (today only the foundations of the monument are visible between the theater of Dionysus and the stoa of Eumenes). The votive inscription mentioning the choregic victory of Nikias Nikodemos is embedded in the wall above the epistle of the gate.

The Parthenon is the main building of the architectural complex of the Acropolis of Athens, as well as the greatest symbol of the beauty of classical architecture in ancient Greece. Built between 447 and 432 BC, the imposing Doric-style building was created to house a colossal sculpture of Athena Parthenos made of wood, ivory and gold, which had a height of twelve meters.

The propylaea were monumental gates, and those of the Acropolis were built on the west side of the hill, where the gate of the Mycenaean fortification used to be, by Pericles between 437 B.C. and 431 B.C. and replaced the old propylaea of the time of Pisistratus. They were covered with a giant double portico of Pentelic marble. The architect Mnesicles designed the porticoes as if they were facades of Doric temples. The outer portico has a platform on each side with three Ionic columns that supported a blue marble roof with stars. The two fronts have a Doric facade, hexastyle, with the central intercolumnium wider, giving way to the roadway. The access wall is articulated in five linteled openings arranged in decreasing order. Flanking the access staircase, there is a base on which stands the temple of Athena Nike.

Built between 426 and 421 BC to replace older temples whose remains are preserved inside the bastion. The small Ionic temple had a frieze carved in relief with different thematic representations on each side. The east side depicted a gathering of gods around Zeus enthroned, while the other sides featured scenes of warfare between Greeks and Persians or Greeks with other Greeks. The south side depicted the victorious battle of the Greeks against the Persians at Marathon in 490 BC, led by the Athenians. Few sculptural remains of the pediments of the temple are preserved.

Located just south of the Propylaea, within the sacred precinct of the Acropolis, it was a sanctuary dedicated to Artemis Brauronion, protector of women who were about to give birth and those who had just given birth. It probably functioned as a complement to the great sanctuary of the goddess at Brauron in Attica. It was founded in the middle of the 6th century BC. The main part of the sanctuary consisted of a pi-shaped Doric stoa, and had ten columns along the fa?ade, while its rear wall ran parallel to the southern fortification wall. At each end of the stoa was an enclosed rectangular wing in which the treasures of the sanctuary were kept. The triangular courtyard contained the offerings of the faithful. A second statue of the goddess was placed. The head of this statue is exhibited today in the Acropolis Museum. Today, only the cuts in the bedrock for the foundations of the walls are visible, allowing the reconstruction of the shape and access to the sanctuary.

It was erected in the late 1st century B.C. Several architectural elements of the building were found east of the Parthenon and many more were brought here after discovery elsewhere. Nearby are the irregular tufa foundations of a building generally considered to be the Roman temple. The inscription on the temple's epistle mentions that the building was dedicated by the city of Athens to the goddess Rome and to Octavian Augustus. The temple, small and circular, had a single row of nine Ionic columns and no interior wall; the entablature and conical roof were entirely of white marble.

It has the same height as the temple of Athena Nike. It was built in honor of Eumenes II of Pergamon in 178 BC to commemorate his victory in the chariot race of the Panathenaic games. On top of the pedestal was a bronze quadriga (four-horse chariot) driven by Eumenes and his brother, Attalos. This chariot was replaced by another in about 27 BC, dedicated by the city of Athens to Marcus Agrippa. The rectangular and slightly tapered pedestal is the only part of the monument that has been preserved to this day. Made of gray-blue Hymettus marble, it stands on a stepped base of stone and tufa. The pedestal is 8.91 meters high.

While the Parthenon was the most impressive temple on the Acropolis, the Erechtheion was built to house the religious rituals that the ancient temple it was built on housed before it, and shows the cultural maturity of Athens. It is an intricate temple, designed to accommodate the radically uneven terrain of the site, and to avoid disturbing sacred shrines, such as the altars to Poseidon (Erechtheus), and to Hephaestus, or the place where Poseidon struck the Acropolis with his trident. The temple is unusual in that it incorporates two porticoes (protaseis); one in the northwest corner which is supported by tall Ionic columns, and another in the southwest corner which is supported by six huge female statues, the famous Caryatids which have become the characteristic feature of the temple, as they stand and seem to casually support the weight of the portico roof on their heads.