Laryssa waiting for the flight
Shirley waiting for the flight
Shirley at Syntagma Square in Athens
Syntagma Square, in front of the Parliament building.
Parliament Building.
12 century church, Panayia Gorgoepikoos, meaning "Virgin who answers prayers quickly"
Stores in the Plaka neighborhood
In the Plaka neighborhood, which lies in the shadow of the Acropolis.
Roman Agora
View to the Acropolis from the Plaka
At left is the Tower of the Winds (built 1 BC by an astronomer) in the Roman Agora
Shirley with the Acropolis and Roman Agora
Sunset at Roman Agora
Tower of the Winds with sunset
The Acropolis!
Shopping street in the Plaka
Just something that caught my eye
Monastiraki Square with Roman Agora and Acropolis
This building was built as a mosque in the 18th century in Monastiraki Square. It currently houses a ceramics folk art museum.
At dinner in the Plaka
Might be the owner of the restaurant. At any rate, he was very nice, and really friendly with the guests! :-)
Acropolis view from the roof deck of the Hotel Stanley.
Tour of the Acropolis! This is the Herodes Atticus Theater. The seats have been restored and it's being used today.
Consulting my Frommer's guidebook for the following pictures...
The Parthenon, dedicated to the goddess Athena, is the largest and most important religious shrine in the Acropolis. One thing I can say is true-it really is as incredible to see in person as you hear about.
After the Persians invaded and destroyed the Acropolis in 480 BC, a rebuilding effort led by Pericles began in 448 BC. The Parthenon was dedicated 10 years later.
(I wonder if they re-used the scaffolding or if it was never taken down?)
As you walk around the site there is marble stuff on the ground everywhere. It's hard to tell what's old/new/recycled.
Hellooooo! I'm at the Acropolis!
Remnants from the Parthenon and other Acropolis buildings are stored or re-created in the new Acropolis Museum, including the friezes that decorated the perimeter of this one.
View down to the Dionysus Theater, which originally seated 17,000 people
Spare parts for restoration.
This is how they move those heavy marble pieces around the site.
Spare parts
View to the northeast. That's Likavitos Hill on the right. There's an observatory up there.
Erechtheion, honored as the tomb of a legendary king of Athens.
The feminine statues are the Caryatids.
These are copies; the originals are in the Acropolis Museum (except for one which is in the British Museum. Hey England! They want it back and saved a space!)
View to the north
Exiting through the Propylalia
View to the west
The Romans felt a need to build an entrance to the entrance; this is it.
View of the Propylalia (grand entrance to the Acropolis).
Thissio neighborhood
Statue of Thesseus
Adrianou Street
Entering the Ancient Agora, Athens' former commercial and civic center. Socrates and Plato used to hang out here during the 400's BC.
Map of the Ancient Agora
Somewhere in the distance behind Shirley was the prison where Socrates drank the hemlock after being sentenced to death in 399 BC
Stoa of Attalos, originally built by King Attalos of Pergamon in the 2nd century BC.
The Stoa was a shopping arcade and meeting place. It was restored by Americans in the 1950's. Probably because Americans can really appreciate a good shopping mall. ;-)
A gorgeous statue. (Somehow though, I get the feeling I've seen its head in another museum.)
The old shopping arcade, fronted by more modern-era vendors. If you need a genuine fake watch or a rubber tomato that squishes flat to the ground and miraculously re-shapes itself, these are your guys.
Cafe break!
Hadrian's Arch
Changing of the Guard at the Parliament Building
The new Acropolis Museum opened this year-5 years late. Construction was delayed because they found ruins underneath where they were building.
As you walk the ground floor of the museum, you can look through the glass floor at the uncovered ruins. The museum itself is fascinating-we spent over 4 hours looking around.
Temple of Olympian Zeus
On the hop-on, hop-off bus, entering Syntagma Square.
Olympic Stadium. From Wikipedia: Full name Panathinaiko Stadium Location Athens, Greece Built ca. 566 BC 329 BC (rebuilt in marble) Renovated 1870 (ruins found, restored) 1895-1896 (1896 Olympics) 2000-2004 (2004 Olympics)
University of Athens
Academy of Athens
This frieze duplicates what used to be on the Parthenon. Pretty cool to see an intact replica.
National Library
Athens cathedral
Shirley getting necklaces made for Kelsey and Caelin.
Cafe in the Plaka
I have a feeling those doors open around midnight then don't close until dawn.
Looking into Psirri neighborhood from the roof deck
View from the roof deck at the Hotel Jason Inn
View of the Temple of Hephaistos - Thission from the rooftop of the Hotel Jason Inn
View from the roof deck.
This has to be the worst marble statue I have ever seen.
Down the street from the hotel. There is graffiti everywhere in Athens, but most places are safe for walking around.
On the way to Delphi on our last full day in Greece
Arachova, a ski town, on the way to Delphi. It was a "sell you a rug in 20 minutes" stop on the tour, but we walked around instead.
Arachova, a ski town, on the way to Delphi
View to the ancient Sanctuary of Apollo, site of the Oracle of Delphi, an important religious site since 1600 BC and considered by the ancient Greeks to be the center of the world. When you see the setting, you understand why.
Sanctuary of Athena at Delphi. The actual temple is in the foreground. The round building is the Tholos.
The round building in the foreground, is the 4 century Tholos. They don't know what it was used for, but the work IS fun to say. Behind that is the treasury.
View from the Sanctuary of Athena to the Sanctuary of Apollo, site of the Delphi oracle.
Entering the Sanctuary of Apollo
Roman Agora (meeting place/shopping center)
Ancient inscriptions
Base of a statue. The entire sanctuary was full of offerings to delight the god.
This area contained more offerings to the gods.
Treasury
The area is filled with ruins of treasuries, which were offerings from all over the ancient world.
Ancient gymnasium
View to the Sanctuary of Athena
This must be the egghead offering to the gods.
Remains of more treasuries
Treasury of the Athenians
The Rock of Sibyl. From Wikipedia: "The rock from which the Erythraean Sibyl or Herophile foretold the future. ...As Pausanias says at Phocis "there is a rock which extrudes from the ground. The Delphians say that after she stood above this rock, a woman named Herophile chanted her oracles, a woman who was known as a "Sibyl".
Stoa of the Athenians, with the remains of the Temple of Apollo behind it. Those interlinked stones all have inscriptions on them.
Are you tired of looking at rocks yet? ;-)
Part of a feral cat colony at Delphi
Little feral kitties
This one liked Shirley
Chillin' in the shade
The Delphi archaeological museum is loaded with finds from the Sanctuary of Apollo and surrounding area. This is a Caryatid from the facade of the Siphnian treasury.
The Sphinx from Naxos from 560 BC
from www.mlahanas.de: Kleobis and Biton is the name of two figures in Greek legend. It is also the name conventionally given to a pair of lifesize Archaic Greek statues, or kouroi, which are now in the Archaeological Museum at Delphi, Greece. The statues date from about 580 BC and come from Argos in the Peloponnese, although they were found at Delphi.
138 BC. A hymn to Apollo, from the Athenian treasury. If you look closely, you can see the notes for the music over the letters.
The column of the dancers, an offering from Athens, dating from 332 BC.
From Wikipedia: The Charioteer of Delphi...is one of the best-known statues surviving from Ancient Greece, and is considered one of the finest examples of ancient bronze statues. ... found in 1896 at the Sanctuary of Apollo in Delphi. The statue was erected at Delphi in 474 BC, to commemorate the victory of a chariot team in the Pythian Games
Model of the Sanctuary of Apollo.
Chapel with offerings
View to the Gulf of Corinth
The town of Delphi
