Athens
METRO
Operation hours
For the optimum service of the residents,
the two lines, i.e.
Line 2
(red, SEPOLIA - SYNTAGMA) and
Line 3
(blue, ETHNIKI AMYNA - ΜΟΝASTIRAKI)
operate every day from 5:30 am until 12:00 midnight.
Line 1
(ISAP) Line 2 (METRO) Line 3 (METRO)
05.00-00.30 05.30-24.00 05.30-24.00
Athens
International Airport
The Athens International
Airport is located 33km southeast of Athens and is easily
accessible via Attiki Odos, a six-lane motorway constituting
the Athens City Ring Road.
Public transport to Athens
and the port of Piraeus is provided by express airport
bus connections on a 24 h basis, ensuring efficient
transport for air travelers and facilitating linkage
to key tourist attractions.
Future developments such
as the Suburban Rail and the Metro, to be completed
in 2004, in combination with existing sections of Attiki
Odos and extensions under construction will further
improve airport access and enhance intermodality.
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Combine the Attiko Metro with the public bus express
services to the airport.
Metro line 3:
| "Ethniki Amina" station
- Express bus E94
Metro line 2 & 3:
"Syntagma" station
-Express bus E95.
Athens - Piraeus Electric Subway:
"Stadium of Peace and Friendship" station
- Express bus E96
Public Buses
Four public bus routes serve
exclusively the airport, connecting the greater area
of Athens and Piraeus with the airport.
E92
Kifisia - Athens Airport Express
E93
Kifisos Coach Station - Athens Airport Express
E94
Ethniki Amina - Athens Airport Express
E95
Syntagma - Athens Airport Express
E96
Piraeus - Athens Airport Express
E97
Dafni Metro Station - Athens Airport Express
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Map of Athens
Click on the map to enlarge
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Athens hotels BY LOCATION
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History
To appreciate Athens,
it's important to be aware of the city's traumatic
history. Unlike most capital cities, Athens' history
is not one of continuous expansion; it is one characterised
by glory, followed by decline and near annihilation,
and then resurgence in the 19th century, when it became
capital of independent Greece.
Accounts of Athens' early days are
inextricably woven with mythology, making it difficult
to be sure what really happened. We do know, though,
that the hilltop site of the Acropolis, endowed with
two copious springs, drew some of Greece's early Neolithic
settlers. Later, with the rise of city-states, the
Acropolis provided an ideal defensive position, and
by 1400 BC, it had become a powerful Mycenaean city.
Around 1200 BC Greece
fell into a long dark age, of which very little is
known, but in the 8th-century BC a peaceful Athens
became the artistic centre of Greece. Next came a
period of social reform, followed by unrest and subsequent
tyranny. Athens didn't shake off oppression until
510 BC, when Sparta stepped in to help. Following
the defeat of the Persian Empire, Athens' power grew
enormously. It established a confederacy on the island
of Delos, demanding tributes from islands for protection
against the Persians. The money was used to transform
the city. This was Athens' golden age: monuments were
built on the Acropolis, and drama and literature flourished.
Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides; sculptors Pheidias
and Myron; and historians Herodotus, Thucydides and
Xenophon all lived at this time.
Sparta, however, wasn't prepared to
play second fiddle, and increasing hostilities triggered
the Peloponnesian Wars in 431BC. After 27 years of
fighting, Sparta gained the upper hand, and Athens
slid from its former glory. The century wasn't a total
loss, as it did produce three of the west's greatest
orators and philosophers: Socrates, Plato and Aristotle.
Under Roman rule, Athens
continued to be a major seat of learning, and Roman
emperors graced the city with many grand buildings.
After the subdivision of the Roman Empire into east
and west, the city remained a cultural and intellectual
centre, until its schools of philosophy closed in
529 AD. Between 1200 and 1450, Athens was overrun
by a motley crew of opportunists, including Franks,
Catalans, Florentines and Venetians. The Turks invaded
in 1456 and settled in for 400 years.
In the early stages of
the War of Independence (1821-27), fierce street fighting
saw the city change hands several times between Greek
liberators and Turks. In 1834, Athens replaced Nafplio
as the capital of independent Greece, and King Otho
set about repairing the war-torn city. Bavarian architects
created a city of imposing neoclassical buildings
(most of which have since been demolished) and tree-lined
boulevards.
The historical event which,
more than any other, shaped the Athens of today was
the compulsory population exchange between Greece
and Turkey that followed the signing of the Treaty
of Lausanne in 1923. The population of Athens virtually
doubled overnight, necessitating the hasty erection
of concrete apartment blocks to house the newcomers.
Along with the rest of
Greece, Athens suffered appallingly during
the German occupation of WWII and in the civil war
that followed. The expansion of Athens accelerated
during the 1950s and 60s, when the country began the
transition from an agricultural to an industrial nation.
The colonels' junta (1967-74) tore down many crumbling
old Turkish houses and the neoclassical buildings,
all the while failing to tackle the infrastructure
problems resulting from the rapid, chaotic growth
of the city. By the end of the '80s the city had developed
a sorry reputation as one of the most traffic-clogged
and polluted in Europe.
Since the 1980s, fundamental
changes have taken place, the most dramatic in the
'90s. The city's failed bid to stage the 1996 Olympics
served as a wake-up call to authorities, who launched
an ambitious program to prepare the city for the 21st
century. In 1997, the city's bid to stage the 2004
games was successful. Although the Olympics created
a momentum of its own, with confidence riding high
as billions were poured into development, infighting
and bureaucratic red-tape caused delays so great that
in 2000 IOC chairman Juan Antonio Samaranch warned
that the games were in danger. By the end of 2002,
the IOC was more confident about the progress Athens
had made, but still concerned about whether everything
would be finished on time. The years 2003 and 2004
will be critical, with all eyes on the city. In the
long term, the Olympics could prove the greatest gift
for Greece, and Athens, fast-tracking long-overdue
infrastructure improvements. In the short term, they
present the greatest challenge - as events of the
last few years have shown, delivering an event of
a scale the nation has never seen may well exhaust
all the country's resources.
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Greek
Tourist Organizer
Guide of Greek Hotels and
numerous travel related resources in Greece |
Athens
Attractions
Acropolis
Theatre of Dionysos
Ancient Agora
Tower of the Winds &
Roman Agora
National Gardens
National Archaeological
Museum
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No trip to Athens would be complete
without a visit to the Acropolis. It is the most important
ancient monument in the western world. Inspiring as the
monuments are, though, they are but faded remnants of
Pericles' city - a city of temples with colossal buildings,
lavishly coloured and gilded, and of gargantuan statues,
some of bronze, others of marble plated with gold and
encrusted with precious stones.
The Propylaia, which formed the towering
entrance to the Acropolis in ancient times, boasts an
architectural brilliance ranking with that of the Parthenon.
The Parthenon, however, is unsurpassed in its grace
and harmony. It is the largest Doric temple ever completed
in Greece, the only one built completely (apart from
its wooden roof) of Pentelic marble. The Parthenon had
a dual purpose - to house the giant statue of Athena
commissioned by Pericles, and to serve as the treasury
for the tribute money that had been moved from Delos.
It was built on the site of at least four earlier temples,
all dedicated to the worship of Athena. Beside the Parthenon
is the Erechtheion, immediately recognisable for its
much-photographed Caryatids, the six maidens who take
the place of columns. The onsite Acropolis Museum houses
a collection of sculptures and reliefs from the site.
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The enormous dimensions of the Theatre
of Dionysos, on the southeastern slope of the Acropolis,
give testament to the importance of theatre in the life
of the Athenian city-state. The first theatre on this
site was a timber affair erected in the 6th century
BC. Here goatskin-clad performers sang and danced during
the Festival of Great Dionysia. During the golden age
of the 5th century, dramas by Aeschylus, Sophocles,
Aristophanes were commissioned for the festival. The
theatre was reconstructed in stone and marble by Lycurgus
between 342 and 326 BC. The auditorium could seat 17,000;
of an original 64 tiers of seats, about 20 tiers still
survive. The 2nd-century reliefs at the rear of the
stage depict the exploits of Dionysos. The two hefty,
hunched-up selini were worshippers of the mythical Selinos
of the oversized phallus, who charged up mountains in
lecherous pursuit of nymphs. He mentored Dionysos -
with whatever energy he had leftover.
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The Agora (market) was the focal
point of administrative, commercial, political and social
activity back in the day. All roads led here, and it
was bustling and crowded. Socrates could be seen expounding
his philosophy, and in 49 AD, St Paul disputed here
daily in an attempt to win converts to Christianity.
A good place to begin an exploration of the site is
in the reconstructed Stoa of Attalos, originally built
in 159-138 BC; its expensive shops were a popular stamping
ground for monied Athenians. In the vicinity is the
Agora Museum, where there's a model of the Agora upstairs
along with a collection of finds from the site. The
Temple of Hephaestus, on the western edge of the Agora,
dates from 449 BC and is the best-preserved Doric temple
in Greece. To the northeast of the temple are the foundations
of the Stoa of Zeus Eleutherios, one of the places where
Socrates spoke to the masses.
Near the southern entrance of the market
is the Church of the Holy Apostles, which was built
in the early 11th century to commemorate St Paul and
his teachings. Have a look at the Byzantine frescoes
inside.
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The octagonal marble Tower of Winds,
built in the 1st century BC by Syrian astronomer Andronicus,
was several monuments in one: it served as a sundial,
weather vane, water clock and compass. Each side of
the monument represents a compass point and has a relief
of a figure floating through the air, depicting the
wind associated with that point. The weather vane, which
disappeared long ago, was a bronze Triton that revolved
upon the top of the tower.
The Roman Agora, though little more than
a heap of rubble to the average eye, does hold an interesting
nugget or two. Its entrance is through the well-preserved
Gate of Athena Archegetis, flanked by four Doric columns.
To the right of the entrance are foundations of a 1st-century
public latrine, and in the southeast area are the foundations
of a propylon and a row of shops.
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The bad news is that the museum
housing the world's finest collection of Greek antiquities
closed for major renovations in October 2002. The good
news is that the 1874 museum will be transformed into
a modern facility, befitting the guardian of such a
priceless collection, reopening in April 2004 in time
for the Olympics.
Despite all the pilfering by foreign
archaeologists in the 19th century, this museum still
has the world's best collection of Greek antiquities.
The museum's tour de force, the Hall of Mycenaean Antiquities,
is filled with gleaming gold. The star attraction is
the Mask of Agamemnon. The Neolithic Collection includes
finds from Thessaly, as well as pottery, figurines and
jewellery from Troy, and the Cycladic Collection includes
the largest Cycladic figurine ever found. Other rooms
hold archaic, classical, late classical, Hellenistic
and Roman period sculpture; bronze; pottery; and other
exquisite objects and antiquities, including elaborately
decorated mummy cases. The Thira Exhibition, consisting
of spectacular Minoan frescoes unearthed at Akrotiri
on Santorini, have been returned to the island.
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The delightfully shady National
Gardens, featuring subtropical trees and ornamental
ponds with waterfowl, are a nice refuge from the heat
of the summer months. They were formerly of royal status
and were designed by Queen Amalia. The botanical museum
houses interesting drawings, paintings and photographs.
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Transportation
Getting There & Away
Athens is a busy European hub, well serviced by flights
from most parts of the world. The swish new Eleftherios
Venizelos international airport at Spata (21km/13mi
east of Athens) opened in March 2001, making air travel
to and from Greece a far more pleasant experience than
it used to be. Departure tax - included in ticket prices
- is US$23 for domestic flights, US$26 for international
flights to EU countries and US$36 for other international
destinations. The quickest (25-35 minutes) way to the
airport until the suburban rail network is finished
in 2004 is to take the metro to Ethniki Amina and catch
the E94 express airport bus. Otherwise, take the E95
airport express bus from Amalias Ave in Syntagma, outside
the Parliament (1 hour) or bus E96 from Plateia Karaiskaki
in Piraeus. Taxis can take longer than public transport
if traffic is bad. Expect to pay around US$16-19.
There are two main intercity bus stations:
Terminal A, about 7km (4.3mi) northwest of Omonia at
Kifissou 100 and Terminal B, 5km (3mi) north Omonia
off Liossion. International coaches from Albania, Bulgaria
and Turkey arrive and depart from Peloponnese train
station.
Trains to other parts of Greece leave
from Larisis station and Peloponnese station, conveniently
located near each other about 1km (0.6mi) northeast
of Plateia Omonias. Trains also depart Larisis for Turkey,
Bulgaria, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia
and northern Europe.
Ferries, hydrofoils and catamarans bound
for a bewildering array of islands depart from Athen's
nearby port, Piraeus. For the latest departure information,
pick up a weekly ferry schedule from the tourist office
in central Athens. Services to Italy leave from Patras,
three and a half hours west of Athens and Igoumenitsa,
in northwestern Greece. Weekly services go to Cyprus
and Israel from Piraeus. Boats to Turkey leave only
from the Greek Islands. Port taxes are included in ticket
prices and vary according to the destination.
Brazen drivers or motorcyclists can enter
or leave the city via National Road 1, the main route
north from Athens. Cyclists will find Athens a nightmarish
proposition, with manic traffic and serious air pollution;
a far better idea is to catch the train between Athens
and Corinth or Thebes and start cycling from these comparatively
sedate cities.
Getting Around
Many of Athens' ancient sites are
within easy walking distance of Syntagma and many museums
are close by on Vasilissis Sofias, so chances are you
won't have much need for public transport. But if you
do, you'll find that the city's sparkling new metro
system has made getting around the centre of Athens
far less painful than it used to be. Journeys that used
to take an hour above ground take just minutes below
ground. Another phase of expansion is due to be completed
before the 2004 Olympics. Suburban Buses (blue and white)
operate every 15 minutes, 5am-midnight and are inexpensive.
Cable trolleybuses run the same hours.
With 1.7 million cars in circulation,
it goes without saying that driving is an exercise in
aggravation. And that's without mentioning the confusing
signs, one-way street systems, cavalier attitudes to
road laws and lack of car parks. As for cycling, don't
even think about it. Athens' taxis are inexpensive -
though you should always check the meter is set to the
right tariff - but hailing one can be incredibly frustrating.
To try this from the pavement, shout your destination
as one passes. If a taxi is heading your way, it might
stop even if there are passengers already inside. But
don't count on it. If you absolutely must be somewhere
on time, a more expensive radio taxi will save you the
hailing headache.
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