15 Recommended Things to See in Athens, Athens, Greece

The Olympian goddess of wisdom, handicrafts and war also happens to be the patroness and protectress of modern-day Greece’s capital. Athena, daughter of Zeus, the sky and thunder god in Greek mythology, is indeed widely believed to have got her name from the city itself, rather than the other way around. I, in fact, like to think of them as one and the same - the city as a goddess itself, standing strong and proud, regardless of the trials and tribulations thrown at her. Athens to English speakers, Αθήνα (Athina) to the Greeks, is one of the world’s oldest cities, having been continuously inhabited for over 3,000 years. It is indeed rightly considered one of the cradles of Western civilisation.

And yet a surprisingly large number of people tend to bypass it. While Greece as a country has a vibrant tourism industry - its sunny skies, turquoise waters and party islands attract summer holidaymakers from all over Europe and the rest of the world - its capital is often treated as nothing more than a transit stop on the way to said islands. Some visitors may decide to spend a night there to see the Acropolis, but I was surprised at the number of people who, when I mentioned I was spending 5 nights there, either had negative things to say about it or simply thought it was not worth nearly that amount of time. ...... (follow the instructions below for accessing the rest of this article).