The site of the Akropolis was very likely settled by Neolithic people thousands of years ago. Athens became the center of a powerful kingdom during Greece’s Mycenaean period of about 1400 to 1100 BC. Less is known about the city during Greece’s Dark Age, but Athens became a cultural center by about the year 800 BC. By 510 BC, Athens shook off the rule of tyrants and became one of the first democracies. Athens was one of the leaders in the war against Persia, when an Athenian Army defeated the Persians at Marathon in 490 and an Athenian led fleet beat a Persian armada in the straits of Salamis in 480. Subsequently, Athens enjoyed a golden age when great monuments were built on the Akropolis and poets and playwrights like Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides and sculptors like Pheidias and Myron flourished.

Between 431 and 404 BC, Athens fought a brutal war with its rival city, Sparta. Athens was eventually defeated and slid from its former glory. Even so, great Athenian philosophers such as Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle contributed much to human understanding.

Athens remained a center of culture and learning under Roman and Byzantine rule. After 1200 AD, the city changed hands several times between French, Catalans, Florentines, and Venetians. The Ottoman Empire conquered Greece by about 1453 and ruled for almost four hundred years. Athens was liberated during the Greek War of Independence in 1821-29 during which the city changed hands several times. Athens became the capital of the newly independent Kingdom of Greece in 1834.

In modern times, Athens has become the center of an increasingly prosperous society, with modernization proceeding apace. But the city retains many monuments of its former glory.

The Akropolis

The Akropolis crowns a huge rocky plateau that dominates the city of Athens and has been its symbol since ancient times. At the height of the golden age of Athens, the Akropolis was crowned with magnificent temples, magnificently colored and gilded, and bronze and marble statues. The place is in ruins now, but is not less awe inspiring.

The center of the Akropolis is the Parthenon, the ruins of the largest Doric style temple ever built in ancient Greece. It used to house a gigantic statue of the goddess Athena, to whom the Parthenon was dedicated to. The temple also was the treasure house of tribute money collected from throughout Athens’ Greek client states.

Next to the Parthenon is the Erechtheion, immediately recognizable for its much-photographed Caryatids, the six maidens who take the place of columns. The Acropolis Museum houses a collection of sculptures and reliefs from the site.

The Agora

The Agora was the Athenian marketplace and was the center of social, economic, and political life. Here Socrates disputed philosophy with anyone who dared to argue with him. Here St. Paul preached the new faith of Christianity.

The highlights of a visit to the Agora include the newly reconstructed Stoa of Attalos, where at one time expensive shops attracted well heeled Athenians, the nearby Agora Museum, where there is a model of the original Agora as well as artifacts from the site, the Temple of Hephaestus, the best preserved Doric temple in Greece, the foundations of the Stoa of Zeus Eleutherios, where Socrates could be found many days during the golden age of Athens, and the 11th Century Church of the Holy Apostles, with its Byzantine mosaics.

The Benaki Museum

Founded in 1931, it is the oldest museum in Greece and one of the best. It’s collection includes Bronze Age finds from Mycenae and Thessaly, and ecclesiastical furniture brought from Asia Minor by refugees. There are nearly 20,000 items on display, arranged on four levels in chronological order ranging from prehistory to the founding of the modern Greek state. The collection includes ancient pottery, Karaghiozi shadow puppets, and a stunning array of costumes, jewelry, textiles, and paintings, including early works by El Greco.

National Archeological Museum

This museum has the world's best collection of Greek antiquities. The Hall of Mycenaean Antiquities is filled with gleaming gold. The center of attraction is the Mask of Agamemnon. Other works include a marble statue from Delos of Aphrodite with Pan and Eros circa 100BC, and a bronze statue believed to be Poseidon or Zeus dated to 460BC. There is also an amusing sculpture of Aphrodite raising her sandal to ward off the frisky Pan. The collection also includes archaic, classical, late classical, Hellenistic and Roman period sculpture, bronze and pottery.

Roman Agora

The Roman Agora is a partly excavated site and was the center of Athenian life during the rule of the Roman Empire. To the casual eye the place looks like a jumble of ruined stone, but is still much to see for those with the patience to look. The entrance to the Roman Agora is through the 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. The centerpiece of the Roman Agora is the octagonal Tower of the Winds. The tower served as a sundial, weather vane, water clock and compass. Each side of the tower represented a point on the compass and has a relief of a figure representing the wind associated from that point. The weather vane disappeared long ago. It was in the form of a bronze Triton that revolved upon the top of the tower.

The Keramikos

The Keremikos served as the city’s cemetery from the 12th Century BC to Roman times. Remains still stand of the city walls built in the 5th Century BC. One can see the Sacred Gate, where pilgrims passed during the annual Eleusian Procession and the Dipylon Gate, the main entrance to the city. The Dipylon Gate was also a prime location of prostitutes plying their trade to weary travelers. The Street of Tombs consists of an astonishing array of funerary monuments with bas-reliefs calling for a close look. Nearby is the the Oberlaender Museum, displaying stelae and sculpture from the site, as well as an impressive collection of vases and terracotta figurines.

The Theater of Dionysos

During the golden age of Athens, plays by Aeschylus, Sophocles and Aristophanes were commissioned for the Festival of Great Dionysia and were performed here. The theater, on the Acropolis' southeastern slope, was constructed in stone and marble by between 342 and 326BC. The auditorium could seat 17,000; of an original 64 tiers of seats, about 20 tiers still survive. Note the 2nd-century reliefs at the rear of the stage depicting the exploits of the god Dionysos.

Visiting Athens

Athens has a state of the art air port, with its own museum. There is also a well run bus and train system and ferries from the Greek islands and Italy. Athens has a modern metro system which, along with the buses and trolleys, can speed one through the aggravating Athenian traffic. Taxi cabs are cheap, but difficult to hail.