The Athens Map

The scale

Athens squeezes almost every red pin into a three-kilometre square, which is the single most useful fact about visiting the city. The Acropolis, both Agoras, the Olympieion, the Roman Agora, Hadrian's Library, Plaka, Monastiraki and Psyri all sit inside that one walk. A list on a screen hides it, but your legs will find it: you can leave the Ancient Agora, where the assembly, the courts and the market of classical Athens sat, and reach the Parthenon, built between 447 and 432 BC, in well under half an hour.

Only three pins break the pattern. The National Archaeological Museum, the Lycabettus funicular in Kolonaki and the port of Piraeus each need a metro ride or a taxi. Plan mornings inside the square and treat the outliers as separate trips with their own travel time.

The pedestrian spine

Dionysiou Areopagitou runs along the south slope of the Acropolis and continues as Apostolou Pavlou past Thiseio, one flat car-free line linking the Acropolis Museum, the site entrance, the Odeon of Herodes Atticus, the Philopappos paths and the Ancient Agora. The street was pedestrianised in 2003 under the Unification of the Archaeological Sites of Athens programme, the scheme Melina Mercouri pushed as culture minister, and it was finished before the 2004 Games. The Philopappos paths it passes were laid by the architect Dimitris Pikionis in 1954 to 1957, out of broken marble and stone salvaged from demolished Athenian houses.

What goes wrong: the paving holds heat in summer and there is little shade, so walk it early or late. If you follow one line on this map, follow this one.

The prices

Every ticketed pin carries its official adult rate, which makes the geography of cost visible. Within five minutes of Monastiraki stand three gates: the Acropolis at €30, the Ancient Agora at €20 and the Roman Agora at €10. Nothing at all is charged on the hills, so Philopappos, with its twelve-metre Pentelic marble tomb built in AD 114 to 116, and the Pnyx, where the assembly met and voted, cost only shoe leather.

What goes wrong: state-site tickets are non-refundable, so a strike on the day costs you the full fare. The defence is two changes per ticket, allowed up to two hours before the slot. The combined-ticket page covers exactly that cluster of gates near Monastiraki.

What is not on it

The day trips sit off the edge of this map, between forty and three hundred kilometres out. Delphi is the sanctuary of Apollo, where the Pythia gave her oracles until Theodosius closed the pagan sanctuaries in AD 393. Cape Sounion carries the Temple of Poseidon, built in 444 BC, the same year as the Parthenon. Meteora needs a full day or more, its monasteries reached by rope ladders and nets when building began in the 14th century. The islands go further still. What goes wrong: these are not an hour's add-on, and a morning slot at the Acropolis cannot be combined with Delphi. The day trips hub sorts them by how many hours they take.