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Address

Acropolis, Dionysiou Areopagitou, Athens 105 58, Greece

Hours

Open daily; summer (approx. Apr–Oct) ~08:00–20:00, winter shorter (~08:30–17:00); timed hourly entry, last entry −30 min. Confirm seasonally.

Recognition

UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1987; Greece's most-visited archaeological site

Built

Chiefly 5th century BC under Pericles, at the height of classical Athens

Key monuments

Parthenon, Erechtheion (Porch of the Caryatids), Propylaea, Temple of Athena Nike

Getting there

Metro Acropoli (Line 2) or Monastiraki (Lines 1 & 3); main entrance on Dionysiou Areopagitou

Ticket validity

Timed entry — reserved for the date and hourly slot you choose

The citadel of classical Athens

The Acropolis of Athens is the most famous of the many acropoleis — fortified hilltops — of ancient Greece, and its name simply means the high city. The great limestone rock, rising about 156 metres above the plain of Attica, was settled and fortified long before the classical age, and it carried earlier temples that were destroyed when the Persians sacked Athens in 480 BC. What crowns the hill today is the work of a single extraordinary generation. In the mid-5th century BC, at the height of Athenian power and democracy, the statesman Pericles launched an ambitious building programme to rebuild the sanctuary of the city's patron goddess Athena in gleaming Pentelic marble.

Over a few decades the Athenians raised the Parthenon, the Propylaea, the Erechtheion and the Temple of Athena Nike, employing the finest architects and sculptors of the age and funding the work partly from the treasury of Athens's naval alliance. The result was both a religious sanctuary and a bold political statement of the city's wealth, artistry and confidence. Through the centuries that followed, the buildings served in turn as Greek temples, a Christian church, an Ottoman mosque and a fortress, surviving war, occupation and a catastrophic explosion in 1687. Restoration has continued for generations. What you climb to today is the excavated and conserved heart of classical Athens, the sacred rock from which the ideas, art and architecture of the ancient city still speak.

The Parthenon

The Parthenon is the supreme monument of the Acropolis and one of the most influential buildings ever raised. Built between roughly 447 and 432 BC as the temple of Athena Parthenos — Athena the Virgin — it was designed by the architects Iktinos and Kallikrates, with its lavish sculptural decoration overseen by the master sculptor Pheidias, who also created the colossal gold-and-ivory statue of Athena that once stood inside. Built in the Doric order in Pentelic marble, the temple is celebrated for the subtlety of its design: the columns lean very slightly inward, the platform curves gently upward, and the corner columns are thickened, refinements that correct the eye and give the whole building its living, harmonious grace.

The Parthenon carried some of the greatest sculpture of antiquity — the carved metopes, the long Ionic frieze depicting a grand procession, and the two great pediments showing the birth of Athena and her contest with Poseidon for the city. Much of this survives only in fragments, scattered between the Acropolis Museum in Athens and museums abroad, and a long-running international debate surrounds the sculptures removed in the early 19th century. The building itself was gravely damaged in 1687, when a Venetian bombardment ignited gunpowder the Ottomans had stored inside. Even in its ruined state, the Parthenon dominates the rock and the Athens skyline, and the scaffolding you may see reflects the painstaking restoration that has continued for decades to conserve and partly re-erect it.

The Erechtheion and the Caryatids

On the north side of the summit stands the Erechtheion, the most sacred and the most unusual of the Acropolis temples. Built in the elegant Ionic order in the late 5th century BC, it was raised over ground rich in the oldest Athenian legends — the spot where Athena and Poseidon were said to have contested for the city, where Poseidon's trident struck the rock and Athena's olive tree grew. Because it stood on sloping ground and had to enclose several shrines, the building has an irregular, asymmetrical plan quite unlike the ordered Parthenon, with porches at different levels.

Its most famous feature is the Porch of the Caryatids, where six sculpted marble maidens stand in place of columns, calmly bearing the roof on their heads. They are among the most recognisable images in all of Greek art. The figures you see on the building today are careful replicas: five of the original Caryatids are preserved and displayed in the Acropolis Museum at the foot of the hill, protected from weather and pollution, while a sixth was removed in the 19th century and is held abroad. Standing before the porch, with the maidens poised against the sky and the Parthenon rising close by, gives one of the most memorable views on the whole rock, and a vivid sense of the artistry the Athenians brought to even the structural parts of their temples.

The Propylaea and the Temple of Athena Nike

You enter the Acropolis as the ancient Athenians did, through the Propylaea, the monumental gateway that spans the western approach to the rock. Built in the Doric order by the architect Mnesikles from around 437 BC, and left unfinished when war interrupted the work, the Propylaea was a grand, columned entrance designed to prepare the visitor for the sanctuary beyond. Passing through its shadowed colonnade and emerging into the open with the Parthenon suddenly before you is one of the great architectural experiences of the ancient world, deliberately staged by its builders.

Perched on the bastion to the right of the entrance is the small, jewel-like Temple of Athena Nike — Athena as bringer of victory. Built in the graceful Ionic order in the 420s BC, this compact temple once housed a statue of the goddess and was famous in antiquity for the sculpted parapet around its bastion, including the exquisite relief of Nike adjusting her sandal. Because it sits at the very edge of the rock, the temple commands wide views out over Athens toward the sea, the same panorama from which the Athenians once watched for their returning fleets. Together the Propylaea and the Temple of Athena Nike frame the entrance to the Acropolis, setting the tone of grandeur and refinement before you reach the summit.

The south slope: theatres of Dionysus and Herodes Atticus

The Acropolis is not only the summit but also its slopes, and the southern flank of the rock holds two of the most important ancient theatres in the world, both included in your ticket to the archaeological site. Nestled into the hillside is the Theatre of Dionysus, widely regarded as the birthplace of European drama. It was here, at festivals in honour of the god Dionysus, that the great tragedies and comedies of Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides and Aristophanes were first performed before Athenian audiences in the 5th century BC. The stone tiers you see, rebuilt in later antiquity, could seat many thousands and give a powerful sense of the civic and religious role that theatre played in classical Athens.

Further along the slope stands the Odeon of Herodes Atticus, a steep, semicircular Roman theatre built in the 2nd century AD by the wealthy benefactor Herodes Atticus in memory of his wife. Superbly preserved, with its tall stage building and sweeping tiers of seating, the Odeon is still used today for concerts and performances during the Athens summer festival, though visitors on a standard ticket view it from above rather than entering the performance area. Walking the south slope on your way up or down links the monuments of the summit to the living cultural life of the ancient city, and rewards the extra time it takes with two of antiquity's most atmospheric spaces.

The Acropolis and the Acropolis Museum

A visit to the rock tells only half the story of the Acropolis, because the site and its finest sculptures are, in effect, split between two places. On the summit you walk among the monuments themselves — the Parthenon, the Erechtheion, the Propylaea and the Temple of Athena Nike — but the fragile original sculptures that once adorned them have largely been brought down for protection. The Acropolis Museum, opened in 2009 at the foot of the south slope beside the Acropoli metro station, was purpose-built to hold them.

The museum displays the surviving Parthenon sculptures and a full-scale reconstruction of the frieze, five of the six original Caryatids from the Erechtheion, the sculpture from the Temple of Athena Nike, and countless statues and offerings excavated on the rock, all arranged in daylight with the Parthenon itself visible through the glass. Crucially, it is a separate site with its own ticket — our ticket covers entry to the archaeological site on the hill, not the museum. But the two make a natural pairing: the rock gives you the buildings in their setting and the sweep of Athens below, while the museum lets you stand close to the genuine, luminous marble that the weathered surfaces on the monuments now only represent. Many visitors devote the cooler morning to the rock and the hotter midday to the air-conditioned museum, treating the two as two halves of a single Acropolis day.

Getting there and visiting

The Acropolis stands in the very centre of Athens, which makes reaching it refreshingly simple. The nearest metro station is Acropoli on Line 2 (the red line), only a few minutes' walk from the main entrance on the pedestrianised avenue of Dionysiou Areopagitou that runs along the south and west slopes; Monastiraki station, on Lines 1 and 3, is also close and connects the site to the old town and the airport line. From most central hotels the rock is an easy stroll, and the traffic-free avenues around its base are pleasant in themselves. Entry is now by timed hourly slot, so arrive within the hour shown on your ticket.

The Acropolis is an open-air site on a steep rock, and it repays preparation. The paths and the summit are of marble worn smooth and slippery by millions of feet, the gradient up to the top is significant, and there is almost no shade anywhere on the rock. Sturdy non-slip closed shoes, a hat, sunscreen and plenty of water are strongly advised, especially in the fierce Athenian summer when the midday marble radiates heat. Large bags, food and drink other than water, tripods and drones are not permitted, and climbing on the monuments is prohibited. A lift on the north side provides access for visitors with limited mobility. As Greece's most-visited monument, the Acropolis is busiest in the middle of the day; booking the first or last hourly slot gives you the coolest air, the softest light and the calmest walk among the temples.

Read the full guide: How to Get to the Acropolis →

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