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Athens
ever-increasing pedestrian streets and green
areas are turning the city ento one of the
most enjoyable in Europe. The
Acropolis,
Thission, the
National Gardens,
Psiri and the
Plaka are all
connected and this green area is being
extended further and further.
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For such an unnatural setting as Athens, there
is lots of open space and wildlife in the area
around the Acropolis. Much of it is free
and full of ancient ruins. There are miles of
pathways to walk on and in the spring when the
wildflowers are in bloom you can feel like you
are out in the country or walking through an
Athens that existed before the age of
apartment buildings and traffic. There is a
plan that is being carried out where all the
archaeological sites will be connected by
these wildlife areas and a series of
pedestrian streets and you can see much of
this coming into being on the road that
separates the Acropolis from the neighborhood
of Makriani, on the opposite side of the rock
from the Plaka. What used to be a very busy
street is now on it's way to becoming a park.
There are even plans to take Amalias street
and submerge it while at the same time
exposing the ancient river which now runs
under the city in a giant sewer-pipe.
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The area around the
Acropolis
is like a
forest, with park benches, stray columns and
stray dogs too. The area between the Roman
Theater of Herod Atticus and the ancient
theater of Dionysious is probably the most
interesting and enjoyable in terms of coming
across ancient stones and other evidence of
the city's history.
If you walk from the entrance to the
Acropolis down the hill bearing to your left
and across the street you can climb the hill
of Philipapou and spend hours wandering around
the forests. This is where you can see some of
the most impressive views of the Parthenon so
be sure to have your camera with you. There
are paths all over and this one section of
wilderness goes on for miles. There is a
quarry and a couple theaters, one for the Dora
Stratou Dancers and the other for the Athens
Sound and Light, and someone told me there is
a waterfall but I have yet to find it. By the way, one of the best ways to spend an evening in Athens is to see the show put on by the works reknown Dora Stratou Dancers. Performances take place May through September at 10:15pm, with additional
performances at 8:15pm on Wednesday and Sunday. There are no performances on
Monday. You can buy tickets at the box office, Odos Scholio 8 in the Plaka, from
8am to 2pm and you can also buy them at the show. If you are using a travel agent they can get them for you too.
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The monument on top of Philippapos was built
by the Romans in 114-116 AD in honor of Julius
Antiochus Philopappos, a prominent consul and
administrator and it is from here that you can
get some amazing views of the city. If you
walk down the hill past the Byzantine Church
of Agios Dimitrios you will come to the hill
of the Pnyx where such famous Athenians as
Aristides, Demosthenes, Pericles and
Themistocles used to speak to the Democratic
Assembly in the 5th Century BC. Further on is
the Hill of the Nymphs, where there is an
observatory built in 1842 that used to be for
watching the heavens until the haze of Athens
made this impractical. Come here on Clean Monday after Apokreas (Carnival) and the whole mountain top is full of peope flying colorful kites and there is even some live music going on. (See www.greecetravel.com/holidays/apokreas for some photos). On your way to the top keep your eyes open for what is known as the Prison of Socrates, carved into the stone face of the mountain. Whether it actually was the real prison or not I don't know but it certainly looks like
it could have been so lets just let that myth continue. Actually the cave was a sanctuary of Pan. There are other caves in the rock, one of which was used to hide art and ancient artifacts from the Nazis during the occupation. |
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Pnyx Hill
which is next to Phillipapos is considered the
birthplace of Democracy because this is where
the Athenians gathered to debate and govern
the state of Athens. Though Athens was the
first democracy there were problems that led
to it's downfall which may look familiar to
those of us who take an interest in current
events. Athenian democracy was a great step
foreword for mankind, however the rights of a
citizen did not apply to all. Women were not
recognized as citizens and there was a large
slave population who had no rights and did all
the hard work. But the key to the fall of
Athenian democracy was their denial of the
freedoms they enjoyed to the other city states
which were under its protection from the
Persian threat (which was more of a method to
scare their neighbors than it was an actual
threat). In the name of security, Athens built
up political and military hegemony over the
other Greek states, forcing them to make
sacrifices that benefited only Athens. This
led to thirty years of war with Sparta and in the end
Athenian power and democracy was
destroyed.
But the decisions that led up to the war and those that were made during the war including the disasterous decision to invade Syracuse were made at the flat section carved into the rock called the Pnyx or Pnika.
It is also on Pnyx Hill that you will find the
small church of Saint Dimitrios the
Bombardier. In 1645 Yusuf Aga, commander of
the Turkish garrison, planned to massacre
all the Christians of Athens while they
attended the celebration of Saint Dimitrios on
October 26th. He ordered all the churches of
the city closed so everyone would have to
attend the small church on Pnyx Hill, which he
would then bomb with all the gunpowder he
had collected and stored in the Propylea on
the Acropolis. The night before the
celebration there was a big storm and
lightning struck the Prolpylea, exploding the
gunpowder and killing Aga and most of his
family. From then on the church was known as
Agios Dimitrios Loumbardiaris. The church
contains a large number of carved marble
pieces as well as an unusual wooden
veranda.
Next to
Pnyx hill is the Hill of the Nymphs, crowned
by the observatory and the church of Santa
Marina. It is believed that in ancient times
this was the Hill of Hyakinthos and the nymphs
were the yenethliai who protected women
in childbirth. Saint Marina is the
patron saint associated with childbirth
and the practice of bringing honey as an
offering to the nymphs was replaced by the
practice of changing and leaving old clothes
of sick children in the belief that by leaving
the clothes the illness would leave the child.
Some believe the nymphs are still active on
this hill.
If instead of walking to your left when you
leave the Acropolis, you walk to your right
you will pass Aeropagus Hill and the famous
slippery steps. (In other words be careful).
There is a fantastic view of Athens from the
top of the rock and this is a popular spot for
watching the sunset over Pireaus. Below is the
ancient Agora and the Temple of Hephaestus,
still intact and acres and acres of paths
through the ruins of the ancient market of
Athens. You can cut right though here and get
to the Monastiraki Flea Market if you want to
do some shopping. There is also a museum in
the impressive replica of the Stoa of Attalos,
the long building you can't help but notice
from the hill. This was the place we used to
go to be alone with our girlfriends or to do
other things that we did not want adults to
see us doing when we were highschool students
in the late sixties.
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To walk from the Agora all the way to
the
National Gardens
you need
cross only three main streets, by cutting
through the Plaka on Adriannou street, taking
a left on Kydatheneon street and crossing
Fileninon and Amalias. You will find yourself
in a tropical paradise of plants and trees
that were at one time the private gardens of
the King of Greece but now belong to the
people. In fact it was in these very gardens
in the year of 1920 that King Alexander was
bitten by a monkey and died, an event that
altered the future in a way that made it one
of the most important events in Greek history,
leading to the expulsion of over a million
Greeks from Asia Minor and creating the Athens
that we know of today. But that is a long
story that should be covered elsewhere. There
are no more moneys in the National Gardens and
no more kings in Greece but there is plenty of
wildlife, especially if you like ducks. If you
pass through the gardens to Herod Atticus
street you can see the old Palace, still
guarded by the Evzones. |
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By going right down Herod Atticus or if you
are in the gardens by following the signs
towards Zappion you can pass through another
area of trees, plants and flowers, cross busy
Vas Konstantinos or Vas. Olgas and be at the
first Olympic Stadium, built in 1896 and also
surrounded by forests. If you walk to the top
of the Stadium you will realize that it is
level with the top of Arditos hill where
health-minded Athenians jog in the late
afternoon. Even if you don't feel like jogging
there is a spectacular view of the Acropolis
from up on the top. Below there is a cafe
which serves excellent frappes and espresso
and the area around it is where the children
from the neighborhood come to play. This was the stadium used in the 2004 Olympics for archery and the end of the Marathon.
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 From the stadium you will notice a large
mountain across the way, opposite the
Acropolis. If you walk straight up Herod
Atticus street and keep walking through
Kolonaki
, or just cut through the park, you will
eventually come to Mount Lykabettos which is
actually two mountains and miles and miles of
trails and several cafes at the top or near it
. If you don't feel like climbing up you can
take a train to the top and walk down. There
is a large variety of plants and trees and the
views are spectacular, especially at sunset.
There is a church at the very top and there is
also a theater that has rock concerts during
the summer. (I saw James Brown, Roy Harper and a very strange incarnation of The Byrds here. One night I arrived in Athens and I could hear Peter Gabriel from the city below while he was playing at Lykavettos.) |
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On the other side of Patission is the mountain
known as Galatsi. Unlike these other areas the
top of Galatsi, though wooded is full of farms
and houses and has a very third-world
atmosphere. Not exactly a tourist destination
and without a car difficult to get to, the
mountain is covered in trees and the views are
spectacular though the abundance of radio and
phone antenae made me a little nervous about
micro-waves. But there is a big park, a sports
center and even a movie theater on the way to
the top and lots of barking dogs.
The next time someone tells you that Athens
is nothing but a concrete jungle you can give
them a good argument. |
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This is the view from the top of
Philipappos looking towards
Pireaus |
This is the path that goes down
from the top of Lykabettus. |
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This is the view from the top of
the Olympic Stadium |
This is the view from Philippapos
Hill. These are the Lees from
NYC. |
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