Acropolis Tour

An Acropolis tour climbs the rock above the centre of Athens with a licensed tour leader. The tour is one of the Greece Tours on Greece Ville.

This post covers who leads the tours, the gates and paths, the smaller monuments, the myths and the wars of the rock.

Caves and springs, travellers, light, heat, crowds, the best months and common questions follow. The sections include Acropolis tours that can be booked online.

What is an Acropolis tour?

An Acropolis tour is a visit to the Acropolis, a Greek site on the UNESCO World Heritage list. UNESCO gives it the number 404 on that list. The listing rests on cultural criteria one, two, three, four and six.

On an Acropolis tour, the monuments on the rock take centre stage. The World Heritage summary says these monuments strongly inspired Neoclassical architecture. So later builders drew ideas from them.

The Acropolis also matters in Western culture. Since at least the mid-18th century, the West has seen it as a key symbol. The symbol stands for the Greek legacy.

On an Acropolis tour, visitors enter a site that lets in no more than 20,000 people a day. The Organization for Managing and Developing Cultural Resources, a culture ministry body, set that limit.

Before the cap, crowds at the site were larger. Up to 23,000 people a day crowded onto the rock. Large groups made up the bulk of the crowd before noon.

• Who counts: The daily limit at the Acropolis counts single visitors and tour groups alike.
• First slot: The first hourly entry slot of the morning admits 3,000 people.
• 2021 visits: Greek statistics recorded 1,219,717 Acropolis visits, out of 5,309,545 at all Greek archaeological sites.
• 2022 visits: The Acropolis drew 3,019,841 visits, out of 10,946,651 at Greek archaeological sites.

In the first five months of 2023, the site logged 1,284,436 visits. That figure topped the full 2021 total for the Acropolis.

Who leads an Acropolis tour?

An Acropolis tour is led by a licensed tour leader. Greek Law 710/1977 sets the whole legal framework for this job. The Ministry of Tourism keeps a national register of licensed leaders. Non-EU citizens can apply only if they live in Greece legally.

Later laws, 3498/2006 and 4093/2012, changed the rules on who can lead tours by exception. Culture ministry archaeologists can lead only official delegations. They need a special permit from the General Directorate of Antiquities.

On an Acropolis tour, the leader’s Greek licence covers the whole country. The bulk of countries license tour leaders for one area only. The light blue official badge shows the holder’s photo and working languages.

Training in Greece began in 1931, when a law founded the state school for tour leaders in Athens. It opened in 1935. Its graduates received an official licence from the Greek National Tourism Organisation.

On an Acropolis tour, the leader has met the entry rules. Applicants need excellent Greek and a general or vocational high school diploma. Part of them must show C2-level certificates in Greek and two other languages.

In the 1960s, the tourism organisation set the school running regularly, with new graduates every year. In 1997, the EU agency CEDEFOP named the Athens school the best professional school in Europe.

• Ministry of Tourism schools: Five state schools for tour leaders run in Athens, Thessaloniki, Corfu, Rhodes and Crete.
• Ionian Islands union: Founded in Corfu in 1965, this tour leaders’ union has 60 members speaking 14 languages.
• Panhellenic Federation: This federation of licensed tour leaders holds yearly seminars in a different Greek region each time.
• Greece 2.0 plan: Under this recovery plan, the culture ministry offers a free digital tour app.

Licensed Greek tour leaders work in 28 languages. Recorded audio tours appeared in Greece but never caught on widely, says their association.

Which gates and paths does an Acropolis tour climb?

An Acropolis tour climbs the rock from the west side, the only natural way up. The Mycenaean fortress and the ancient sanctuary were also entered from there. Old gates, ancient roads, a lift and new paths mark the climb.

The Panathenaic Way ran 1.5 km from the Dipylon Gate to the Acropolis. By the Hellenistic period, the road was 39 to 40 m wide outside the Dipylon Gate.

On an Acropolis tour, the western climb has a long history behind it. Between about 550 and 514 BC, the procession route switched to climb the rock from the west.

The Beulé Gate is nearly 23 m wide. Its central part is about 7 m high and wide. The doorway, 3.87 m high, is 1.89 m wide at the base and 1.73 m at the top.

On an Acropolis tour, the approach to the gate shows Beulé’s dig. He worked under Kyriakos Pittakis, Greece’s chief keeper of antiquities. In 1853 he blasted through a stubborn block of mortar with 150 lb of gunpowder.

That same year, the Académie Française made the Acropolis its poetry prize topic. Louise Colet won it. Beulé wrongly thought the gate was the original entrance. In 1914 Paul Graindor showed it was late Roman.

• Propylaea beams: Marble beams about 6 m long held up the Propylaea ceilings.
• Berlin copy: Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate of 1791 was clearly modelled on the Propylaea.
• Peripatos: A north slope boulder reads: “Length of the Peripatos: five stades and eighteen feet.”
• Lift: The first Acropolis lift was installed in 2004 for the Athens Olympics and Paralympics.

On an Acropolis tour, the new path network runs 500 m, with paths 4 m wide. The ministry said the old 1960s pathway was so worn it endangered visitors. Restoration work on the Peripatos began in 1977.

Which smaller monuments does an Acropolis tour pass?

An Acropolis tour passes a group of smaller monuments as well as the great temples. They include the Temple of Athena Nike, the Brauroneion and the Chalkotheke. Others are the Arrephorion, the Old Temple of Athena and the Agrippa pedestal.

Builders had begun the Temple of Athena Nike by 449 BC. They raised it in stages, as wartime money allowed. Ludwig Ross and his team rebuilt it between December 1835 and spring 1836.

On an Acropolis tour, the Brauroneion honours Artemis Brauronia. It was first set up under the tyrant Peisistratos. Instead of a proper temple, it had a portico about 38 by 6.8 m.

Pausanias saw a larger-than-life bronze Trojan Horse in the Brauroneion. Greek heroes peeped out of it. The horse’s base survives, inscribed with the donor Chairedemos and the sculptor Strongylion.

On an Acropolis tour, the Chalkotheke shows a tight fit. Its portico was 4.5 m wide. To make room, builders cut away the end of the rock-cut steps before the Parthenon’s west front.

The Agrippa pedestal first carried a life-size bronze four-horse chariot. It marked a win in the Panathenaic chariot race. Around 27 BC Athens replaced it with a chariot group thanking Marcus Agrippa for rebuilding an odeon.

• Stone list: By decree, a stone slab in front of the Chalkotheke listed every object inside.
• Arrephorion: Plutarch mentions a ball court next to the home of Athena’s young girl servants.
• Two steps: The Old Temple of Athena had room for two steps, not the usual three.
• Two stones: The Old Temple’s inner foundations are blue Acropolis limestone, the outer ones pinkish Hymettos limestone.

On an Acropolis tour, the Erechtheion has a link to the Pandroseion. A door in its lower west wall led straight into it.

Which myths does an Acropolis tour tell?

An Acropolis tour looks over a city two gods wanted. In Varro’s version, all men voted for Poseidon and all women for Athena. Athena won by one vote. Angry at losing Athens, Poseidon flooded the Thriasian plain and put Attica under the sea.

Cecrops was said to be born from the earth. He had a man’s upper body and a serpent’s or fish’s tail. The writer Eusebius gave him a reign of 50 years.

On an Acropolis tour, Cecrops also stands for a gentle kind of worship. Pausanias says he banned the sacrifice of living creatures and allowed only cakes shaped like a horned ox.

Ancient folk stories linked the name Erichthonius to erion, meaning “wool”, and chthon, meaning “earth”. Erichthonius was said to be lame, so he invented the four-horse chariot to get around.

On an Acropolis tour, the Parthenon recalls Erichthonius. On the great Athena statue there, he was the snake hidden behind her shield. Zeus was said to have set him among the stars as Auriga, the Charioteer.

Pandrosos means “all-dew”, and the three daughters of Cecrops were at times called “Dew Sisters”. Whenever a cow was sacrificed to Athena, an old Attic law required a ewe for Pandrosos too.

• Attica: Cecrops was also said to have divided Attica into twelve communities.
• Aglauros: In Ovid’s telling, Mercury turned her to stone for blocking his way to her sister Herse.
• Aglaureion: This cave was identified only after 1980, when a stele naming priestess Timokrite turned up.
• Arrephoroi: Two girls aged seven to eleven were chosen to live on the Acropolis for a year.

At night these girls carried unknown objects down a natural underground passage. Not even the priestess who handed them over knew what they were.

Which wars and sieges hit an Acropolis tour?

An Acropolis tour crosses a rock that faced Persians, Venetians, Ottomans and Nazis. Athens first fell to the Persians in September 480 BC. A small band of Athenians barricaded on the Acropolis was defeated. In June 479 BC, Athenians fled again.

The Persian general Mardonius pulled down whatever wall, house or temple still stood. Plutarch and Diodorus say Alexander the Great burned the Palace of Persepolis in 330 BC to avenge Athens.

On an Acropolis tour, the Heruli raid follows in the story. These raiders from the Sea of Azov first plundered Sparta, Corinth, Argos and Olympia. They took Athens despite a new city wall built only a generation earlier.

The historian Dexippus then led the Athenians who drove the Heruli out. Centuries later, on 25 September 1687, a Venetian cannonball blew up a powder store in the Propylaea.

On an Acropolis tour, two sieges of the 1820s stand out. Athens fell to Greek rebels without a fight on 28 April 1821. The Ottoman garrison withdrew to the Acropolis.

In the first siege, trapped Ottomans tried to melt the lead in the Parthenon’s columns for bullets. A tale of Greeks offering bullets to save the columns first appears in an 1859 letter by Valaoritis.

• Surrender: Greek irregulars killed nearly half of the Ottomans who surrendered in 1822.
• Second siege: Reşid Mehmed Pasha began it on 25 August 1826, soon after taking Missolonghi.
• Leaders: Yiannis Gouras commanded the garrison until his death, then Yannis Makriyannis took temporary command.
• Phaleron: A Greek defeat there on 24 April 1827 ended hope; the garrison surrendered a month later.

The Turkish garrison handed over the Acropolis in March 1833. A Bavarian garrison then held the rock. A royal decree of 30 August 1834 sent the troops away.

Which caves and springs lie on an Acropolis tour?

An Acropolis tour passes the caves of Apollo, Pan, Ersis and the Klepsydra. The name Klepsydra means “stolen water”. Landslides changed the flow underground, so the spring came and went. Its cave also held a reservoir 4 m deep.

Cave A, westernmost on the north-west terrace, is no shrine. It is a carved podium for watching the Panathenaic procession. Tradition says Apollo met Kreousa, daughter of Erechtheus, at his cave.

On an Acropolis tour, Apollo’s cave recalls their son Ion, who became the Athenian hero. Marble plaques found nearby, carved with a crown, record gifts to Apollo from the nine archons.

Panagiotis Kavvadias uncovered the cave system of Pan, unknown until then, during his dig of 1896–1897. The sanctuary had three parts, with niches carved into the rock to hold gifts.

On an Acropolis tour, the north slope holds the sanctuary of Aphrodite and Eros. Oscar Broneer dug it in 1932. Mycenaean pottery shows the spring in Ersis’s cave was used for only 30 to 40 years.

Builders carved the cave’s upper rock for wooden stairs. At the bottom, a well 9 m deep reached a water vein. It was about 2 m wide on top and 4 m below.

• Neolithic wells: People opened 22 wells, 3 to 5 m deep, at the Klepsydra.
• Klepsydra stairs: After a late 2nd-century AD landslide, 70 vaulted stairs climbed to the bastion below the Propylaia.
• Odysseas Androutsos bulwark: The Greeks built it in 1822–1825 to guard the Klepsydra, the fortress’s sole fresh water.
• Asklepieion fountain: This small late 6th-century BC fountain house drew water from a basin 3.10 m deep.

Remains of the Cyclopean wall, built around 1200 BC, still stand south-east of the Propylaia. The wall was 3.5 to 6 m thick.

Which travellers recorded an Acropolis tour?

An Acropolis tour retraces travellers’ visits to the Parthenon. In 1436 Cyriacus of Ancona became the first since antiquity to describe it. He called it the “temple of the goddess Athena”. Earlier travellers called it a church of the Virgin Mary.

The oldest surviving drawing of the Parthenon is a copy of the original by Cyriacus. Today this copy is kept in Manuscript Hamilton 254 at the Berlin State Library.

On an Acropolis tour, the Parthenon recalls Evliya Çelebi’s words of 1667. This Turkish traveller likened it to an impregnable fortress “not made by human agency”. He prayed in verse that it stand for all time.

Jacques Carrey was a pupil of Charles Le Brun. He came to Athens as draughtsman of the Marquis de Nointel’s embassy. In two weeks he made about fifty-five drawings of the Parthenon sculptures.

On an Acropolis tour, Carrey’s thirty-five surviving drawings show the pediments, metopes and frieze. They are kept in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris. He drew in red and black chalk, recording cracks and damage.

Francis Vernon reached Athens in 1675 and wrote the first English visitor’s description of it. Jacob Spon and George Wheler toured Greece in 1675–1676. They were among the first knowledgeable Western antiquaries to see its antiquities first hand.

• Metope South 14: This Parthenon metope is known today only from Carrey’s drawing.
• Stuart and Revett: They made the first measured Parthenon drawings, printed in 1787.
• Dilettanti Society tour: In 1764–1766 Richard Chandler bought two Parthenon frieze fragments set over town doorways.
• Louis-François-Sébastien Fauvel: Settled in Athens in 1793, he sent a Parthenon metope and frieze section to the Louvre.

In 1904 Sigmund Freud felt a strange sense of unreality on the Acropolis. He described it 32 years later, in 1936.

How do light and cameras work on an Acropolis tour?

An Acropolis tour now shows the monuments under new lights unveiled in September 2020. Eleftheria Deko, an award-winning lighting designer, oversaw the work. She shared a Primetime Emmy for lighting direction of the Athens 2004 Olympic opening ceremony broadcast.

The Onassis Foundation paid for the lighting design and construction. The new fixtures deliver energy savings of more than 65%. The same lighting approach covers the Philopappos Monument and the Temple of Hephaistos.

On an Acropolis tour, five monuments got lights for the first time. They are the Monument of Thrasyllos, the Asklepieion and the Klepsydra. The Cave of Apollo and Aglauros and the Shrine of Aphrodite complete the five.

Pierre-Gustave Joly de Lotbinière photographed the Parthenon and the Propylaea in October 1839. He was on a trip to Athens and Egypt. He bought one of the first daguerreotype cameras for that trip.

On an Acropolis tour, the Parthenon holds a place in photo history. Girault de Prangey made a daguerreotype of it in 1842. His daguerreotypes are the earliest surviving photographs of Greece.

Filippos Margaritis is seen as the first Greek photographer. He made his earliest daguerreotypes of the Acropolis in 1847. In 1853 he opened the first Greek professional photo studio in Athens.

• William James Stillman: He photographed the Acropolis in 1869 and privately published the album in 1870.
• Fred Boissonnas: He published 14 photo albums on Greece and photographed the Acropolis.
• Le Corbusier: In 1923 he used Boissonnas’s Parthenon photographs in his book Vers une architecture.
• Dance photos: Boissonnas took five hundred photographs of “Magdeleine G” dancing at the Parthenon in antique costume.

Fiction films, adverts and documentaries filmed at archaeological sites need a certificate. It confirms their script promotes no violence, racism or sexism.

How do heat and crowds shape an Acropolis tour?

An Acropolis tour faces heat and crowds. Timed hourly entry began as a trial on 4 September 2023. The second hourly slot of the morning admits 2,000 people. Organised tour groups and cruise passengers make up about 50% of daily visitors.

On 12 July 2017, a heatwave shut the Acropolis and other ancient sites across Greece for hours. The Culture Ministry closed archaeological sites from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. This step returned on days reaching 39 °C.

On an Acropolis tour, August 2021 brought closures every afternoon from Tuesday to Friday. Parts of Athens then reached 42 °C. Greek authorities called this heat wave the strongest in more than 30 years.

The 2021 heat wave set the Athens observatory’s highest daily mean, 36.5 °C. It also set the highest daily low there, 31.6 °C. On 14 July 2023, a last-minute announcement shut the Acropolis at noon.

On an Acropolis tour, crowds had not heard about that closure. Red Cross staff handed out bottled water to tourists waiting in long lines. Paramedics gave first aid to tourists with dehydration and fainting spells.

Awnings were put up to shade people queuing in that heat. The new visitor cap followed talks with tour and cruise operators. Greece’s general election on 25 June 2023 delayed it.

• Minister’s goal: Culture Minister Lina Mendoni said the limits aim to protect the monument and improve visitors’ experience.
• Other sites: Mendoni also planned similar caps at other popular archaeological sites.
• Visit length: The rules set no limit on how long a visit lasts.
• Cruise traffic: In 2023, 525 cruise ships started and ended voyages at Piraeus, carrying 880,800 passengers.

Each cruise ship arriving in Greece in 2023 carried 1,339 passengers on average. In 2022 the figure was 969 passengers per ship.

Which months suit an Acropolis tour?

An Acropolis tour in cooler months avoids the worst heat. Before 1980, strong heat discomfort in central Athens was sporadic and chiefly confined to July and August. Since 1980 it has spread across June to September, at times into October.

The Thissio observatory, beside the Acropolis, has logged weather without a break since 1858. Its close surroundings remain unaltered. Rain fell there on 99 days a year in 1961–1990, down from 112 in 1931–1960.

On an Acropolis tour, visitors meet a warmer city. The 1991–2020 mean annual temperature was about 18.5 °C. That was roughly 1 °C above the 1961–1990 mean of 17.6 °C.

August warmed more than any other month, by close to 2 °C. Winter months warmed by only about 0.5 °C. The decade 2011–2020 was the warmest in Athens since the mid-19th century.

On an Acropolis tour, months differ. From February to July, daytime highs rose faster than night lows. The reverse held from August to January. In December, only night lows rose; the average daytime high fell slightly.

The high-risk heat period now passes 90 days in certain years. In the early 20th century, it stayed under 40 days. Since 2000, 72% of daytime heat waves brought hot nights too, against 57% overall.

• Hot nights: Of all heat waves with hot days and nights since 1897, 60% came from 2000 onwards.
• Heavy rain: Days with more than 30 mm of rain doubled in 1991–2020 compared with 1961–1990.
• October: Rain increased in almost every month in 1991–2020, but October turned drier.
• December and January: They averaged only 136 and 138 hours of sunshine in 1961–1990.

On an Acropolis tour, rain matters as well as heat. The year 2002 brought almost three times the normal rainfall in Athens.

What do visitors ask about an Acropolis tour?

An Acropolis tour raises questions about the lift, the site rules and the restoration work. Visitors also ask about the history of the Areopagus and Philopappos Hill. Other questions cover the bodies that study and protect the monuments.

Can wheelchair users take a lift on an Acropolis tour?

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis opened the Onassis Foundation-funded lift on 3 December 2020. It carries two wheelchairs with companions, up to 1,300 kilograms. The ride takes about 32 seconds. Disabled visitors, people on crutches or walkers, and elderly visitors have priority.

What rules apply on an Acropolis tour?

Notices ask visitors to respect the monuments and not touch the marble. In 2009, Greek officials moved to ban high heels, food and drink at archaeological sites, blaming damage. Monument interiors are closed, to spare extra weight and for restoration work.

Who restores the monuments seen on an Acropolis tour?

The Acropolis Restoration Service runs separate work-sites for the Parthenon, Propylaia, Temple of Athena Nike and circuit walls. Surface conservation has run on every monument since 1987. Scaffolding is now permanently off the Parthenon’s west side, and its west pediment is complete.

What history does the Areopagus add to an Acropolis tour?

Its north slope holds tholos and rock-cut tombs from 1600 to 700 BC. Between the 4th and 6th centuries AD, four luxury villas rose there, thought to be philosophy schools. Greece’s supreme court took its name, Areios Pagos, from the ancient council.

What is the story of Philopappos Hill on an Acropolis tour?

In early antiquity, Philopappos Hill held the Mouseion, a sanctuary of the Muses. Under Frankish rule it was called Seggio, thought to come from the Italian segno, “signal”. The historian Plutarch described Philopappos as “very generous and magnificent in his rewards”.

Which bodies study and conserve the monuments on an Acropolis tour?

The Centre for Acropolis Studies, created under Evi Touloupa, has its museum in the Weiler Building. The Committee for the Conservation of the Acropolis Monuments has eight specialist members. Its decisions go to the Central Archaeological Council and Culture Minister for approval.