Visit Athens Guide
Ancient Sites in Athens, and What Each One Costs
The ancient sites in Athens that carry a fence and a ticket number eight, all sold by the same organisation and all charging their own price, from €30 down to €5. Since the seven-site combination ticket was withdrawn they add up fast, and they are not equally worth the money per hour. This page prices and times each one as read on its official page in Q3 2026, and says which two to drop on a short trip. Every price in one table is on the tickets hub; the wider plan is on what to do in Athens.
Quick answer Which of the eight are worth the money, and in what order
Three of the eight carry a trip: the Acropolis at €30, the Ancient Agora at €20 and — for the building rather than the ruins — the Temple of Hephaestus inside the Agora. The other five range from €20 down to €5 and are short.
Key takeaways
- The full comparison sets price against time, which is where the €20 gates start to look very different from each other.
- On two days, do the Acropolis and the Ancient Agora and stop. On four, the small ones start to make sense.
- Kerameikos is listed as temporarily closed on its official page — check before you route a morning through it.
- A multi-site bundle only pays from about three sites up: the combined-ticket page does the arithmetic.
- In winter, five of the eight shut at 15:00 while the rock runs to 17:00 — the opening-hours table has each closing time.
The eight sites, priced against the time they take
Full and reduced prices from each site's own Hellenic Heritage page, read on 1 September 2026. Time needed is ours where the site does not publish one. Winter closing is the time from 1 November to 31 March.
| Site | Full (reduced) | Time | Winter close | Worth it? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Acropolis | €30 (€15) | 1.5 h | 17:00 | The reason people come |
| Ancient Agora | €20 (€10) | 75 min | 17:00 | Yes — the Hephaisteion alone |
| Temple of Olympian Zeus | €20 (€10) | 30 min | 15:00 | Only inside a bundle |
| Roman Agora | €10 (€5) | 25 min | 15:00 | Yes, for the Tower of the Winds |
| Hadrian's Library | €10 (€5) | 20 min | 15:00 | Only inside a bundle |
| Kerameikos | €10 (€5) | 45 min | 15:00 | When it is open — check first |
| Aristotle's Lyceum | €5 (€3) | 20 min | 15:00 | For the idea, not the ruins |
| Odeon of Herodes Atticus | Inside the €30 | 10 min | With the rock | Yes — from above, on the Acropolis ticket |
Read the price and time columns together and the pattern is plain: the Olympieion asks €20 for half an hour and the Roman Agora €10 for twenty-five minutes with a better building in it. That is why the reseller bundles sell — the small sites are hard to justify one at a time and easy to justify in a bulk price.
The passes that cover several of them
The cards behind the table, with the operator's own rating and review count.
from €36
Athens: Acropolis Ticket & Heritage Sites + Acropolis Audio
The bundle the official shop does not sell: the Acropolis slot plus entry to up to five more archaeological sites, including both Agoras and the Temple of Olympian Zeus.
Check Availability
from €44
Athens: Roman Agora & Ancient Agora E-ticket & 2 Audio Tours
Time-slotted e-tickets for both Agoras with two smartphone audio tours, which is the only bundle of the two sold as one product.
Check Availability
from €107
Acropolis & Ancient Agora Guided tour included all Entrances
Four hours with a licensed guide across the Acropolis and the Ancient Agora with every entrance fee included, so nothing is bought at a gate.
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from €45
Athens: Acropolis and Mythology Highlights Small Group Tour
The rock plus the Temple of Olympian Zeus and the Ancient Agora, told through the myths attached to each: a comprehensive first day on foot.
Check AvailabilityPrices, ratings and details are the platform's own. Euro figures are the listed prices. The platform bills in your account's currency.
Every site, by what it was
The same eight, sorted by what the place actually did. Prices are the official adult rate read on 1 September 2026; the dots are our booking tier.
The sanctuary
-
The Acropolis
Sanctuary from €301.5 hbook-ahead tier 5 of 3
The Parthenon, the Erechtheion, Athena Nike and the Propylaea, with both theatres on the south slope.
Tip: The only site in the city with a declared entry hour.
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Odeon of Herodes Atticus
Theatre Inside the €3010 minbook-ahead tier 5 of 3
The Roman theatre on the south slope, still used for concerts every summer.
Tip: Closed to daytime visitors when a performance is being set up.
The civic city
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Ancient Agora
Civic square from €2075 minbook-ahead tier 2 of 3
Where the democracy met, with the best-preserved Doric temple in Greece above it.
Tip: Shuts half an hour before the Acropolis all summer.
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Roman Agora
Market square from €1025 minbook-ahead tier 1 of 3
An Augustan market square holding the Tower of the Winds, sundials and all.
Tip: The Gate of Athena Archegetis is on the street and free to see.
-
Hadrian's Library
Library from €1020 minbook-ahead tier 1 of 3
Hadrian's colonnaded court, more a cultural centre than a library, beside Monastiraki square.
Tip: 08:00–20:00 in summer, 08:00–15:00 from November.
The temple, the school and the dead
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Temple of Olympian Zeus
Temple from €2030 minbook-ahead tier 1 of 3
Fifteen of 104 columns, 638 years in the building, and one that fell in an 1852 storm.
Tip: Hadrian's Arch outside the fence is free at any hour.
-
Aristotle's Lyceum
School from €520 minbook-ahead tier 1 of 3
The excavated grounds of the gymnasium where Aristotle taught, found under a car park in 1996.
Tip: The cheapest ticketed site in the centre, and almost always empty.
-
Kerameikos
Cemetery from €1045 minbook-ahead tier 1 of 3
The potters' quarter and the state cemetery, with the Dipylon gate and a stream running through it.
Tip: Listed as temporarily closed on its official page — check before travelling.
Numbers match the list — tap a pin for the guide.
What to do, by how many days you have
The sites are close together; the money is what decides the order.
One day: the rock, and nothing else fenced
The Parthenon took nine years, 447 to 432 BC, and it has not had an easy life since. In 1687 a Venetian shell hit the gunpowder the Ottomans stored inside it, and the explosion left the ruin you climb to today. Get to the gate for the first hour, then come down to the Acropolis Museum, which opened in 2009 on the Makriyianni plot and stands over an excavated ancient neighbourhood you can see through the glass floor.
The rock costs €30 (€15 reduced) and the museum €20, so a single day swallows two admissions already. Adding a third paid gate means rushing everything. Spend what is left on Philopappos, the Pnyx and Hadrian's Arch, which cost nothing. The one-day plan routes it.
Two days: add the Ancient Agora
This is the ground where classical Athens actually ran, because the assembly's business, the courts and the market all sat here. The Temple of Hephaestus was built between 449 and 415 BC and survives almost complete, which it owes to serving as the church of Saint George Akamates from the 7th century until 1834. The Stoa holds the Agora museum.
Entry is €20 with a €10 reduced ticket, so a second day moves you from roughly €50 to €70 in admissions and buys something no other site gives you. Go early. The Agora closes earlier than the Acropolis through the summer, and a mid-afternoon arrival leaves you staring at a shut gate on the one day you set aside for it.
Three or more: the small ones start to pay
By a third day you are close to the €105 total, and the small gates start earning their keep. The Roman Agora holds the Tower of the Winds, built by Andronicus of Cyrrhus with a relief of each wind on its eight sides and a water clock inside, for €10. Hadrian's Library of AD 132, once the largest in Athens behind a facade of 100 columns, is minutes away.
Aristotle's Lyceum costs €5. Each is a twenty-minute visit, which is exactly when buying the bundle beats paying per gate, since the combined ticket prices out better only if you actually use the small sites. If one strike day kills your schedule, remember each ticket allows two changes up to two hours before the slot. The combined-ticket page works out when.
Winter: the 15:00 wall
From 1 November the small state sites slam shut at 15:00 while the Acropolis keeps going to 17:00. The Olympieion, the Roman Agora, Kerameikos and Aristotle's Lyceum all fall under the early closing, so a winter plan has to run backwards compared with summer. Do the small sites in the morning, take the long lunch, and put the rock in the late afternoon when the day-trippers have thinned out.
There is compensation in the ticket prices, because the first and third Sunday of each month from 1 November to 31 March are free at the state sites, and the free days of 6 March, 18 April, 18 May, 28 October and the last weekend of September apply too. Kerameikos is listed as temporarily closed on its official summer-hours page, so check before you build a morning around it. The opening-hours table has all of them.
Ancient sites: questions
How many ancient sites are there in central Athens?
Eight fenced and ticketed ones, plus free monuments like Hadrian's Arch and the Pnyx that need no ticket at all. The comparison table prices and times each.
Which ancient sites are worth paying for?
The Acropolis and the Ancient Agora on any trip. The Roman Agora for the Tower of the Winds. The rest are short and are best bought inside a bundle if at all — what to do by days sets it out.
What does it cost to see them all?
€105 at full price, or €53 at the reduced rates. That is what replaced the €30 seven-site package: the combined-ticket page has the arithmetic.
Do any of them need booking?
Only the Acropolis, whose ticket carries a declared entry hour. The other seven are walk-up all year.
Are they free at any point?
Yes — five fixed dates and the first and third Sunday of each month from November to March. The free-entry page lists them and says which are worth the queue.
Which one is closed?
Kerameikos, according to its own official page, which prints "the site is temporarily closed" under summer hours with no reason and no end date. The Kerameikos page explains how to check for your dates.
Where to go from here
The pages behind the table.
Tickets
All four sellers and every figure we read on an official page: the tickets hub.
Every price in one placeMuseums
What is worth an afternoon indoors, and which two shut on Tuesdays: the museums hub.
When the sites shut at threeThings to do
All seventeen central sights with prices and times: things to do in Athens.
Everything, rankedAncient Sites on Video
Three films covering the same ground as this page, from channels that work in Athens rather than passing through. Ids checked on 2 September 2026.
Ancient Athens Explained
The ancient city as a whole, reconstructed — the best single orientation before you visit any of the sites separately.
Video: Manuel BravoAncient Ruins of Greece — Rick Steves' Europe Travel Guide
Rick Steves on the Greek sites, in the plain register his films are good at.
Video: Rick Steves' EuropeAcropolis Athens Complete Guide + Ancient Agora & Museum | Tickets, Tours & Tips 🇬🇷
One couple's route through the rock, the Agora and the museum in a single day, with the ticket decisions narrated as they make them.
Video: Brian & StephPrices, hours and terms are set by the venue or operator and confirmed at checkout.
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