The Athens full day tour starts with a visit to the Acropolis where you will see the Parthenon, the temple on the top of the sacred rock devoted to Goddess Athena, the Goddess of wisdom, the Propylea, the entrance to the sacred rock, the Temple of Wingless Victory which was devoted to Goddess Athena-Nike, the Erechtheum, the most sacred and mythical of all the temples of Athens with its famous Caryatides (female featured statues), the 5000-seat Odeon of Herodes Atticus which was carved into the rock and is still used for music festivals, the 13000-seat theatre of Dionysus where the Athenians listened to the immortal works of Sophocles, Aeschylus, Euripides and Aristophanes. We will continue our tour by visiting the Temple of Olympian Zeus, the Panathinaic Stadium (where the Olympic Games were held for the first time in modern Athens in 1896), the Parliament, and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and the changing of the guards. We will visit Plaka-the oldest and most picturesque part of Athens, the Roman Agora, and the Tower of the Winds and the ancient Agora of Athens, which was the centre of public life where Plato and Socrates-the two famous philosophers of ancient Greece- taught to the Athenians about Democracy and Philosophy. Then we will drive through University Street that connects Constitution (Syntagma) Square with Concord (Omonia) Square-the second most important square in Athens and see the Academy, the University and the National Library followed by a drive up to Lycabettus Hill (highest point of Athens) where you can enjoy a panoramic view of Athens.
Then you can have lunch at a traditional Greek restaurant and taste the famous Greek cuisine. We will conclude our tour by visiting the Acropolis museum. You may also spend more time in Plaka instead of visiting one of the museums.
The new Acropolis museum is under the south slope of the Acropolis and contains mostly pediment sculpture, reliefs, and statues found on the sacred rock of Acropolis, which formed most of its decoration. Among these statues, the well-known female figures with the characteristic archaic smile called ‘Korai’ such as the Kore of Naxos, the Kore of Chios, and the Kore of Lyons etc. There are also sphinxes, consecrated reliefs such as that of Athena in Medication and consecrated sculptures such as the Moschoforos (a man who is carrying a calf across his shoulders), the Boy of Kritias etc. The National Archaeological museum houses the historical past of the Greek civilization. It is considered as the most important museum in the whole world. You can see findings and monuments from all the places of ancient Greece and Greek Civilizations. There are statues, vases, weapons, jewellery from Neolithic times, the Cycladic civilization, the Minoan civilization, the Classical and Hellenistic periods and the Roman period. Among the most important are the Golden mask of Agamemnon, the statue of Zeus from Dodona, the statue of Aphrodite etc.
