Philopappos Hill

The saddle below the monument

The open rocky shoulder between the summit and the Acropolis side is the classic position: the Parthenon sits at eye level across the gap with the Erechtheion to its left and nothing modern in the frame. It is about twenty minutes up from the Dionysiou Areopagitou end. In the hour before sunset there will be thirty or forty people spread along it, which is nothing next to the rock itself.

The Pnyx terrace

This is the hill where the Athenian assembly met and voted, so democracy in Athens was practised on this ground. The bema, the speaker's platform cut into the rock, sits behind you when you face the Acropolis, which is exactly how the crowd once faced the speaker. You stand higher and further north than on Philopappos, looking at the Acropolis from the front rather than the side, and the view is wider.

There are fewer people here than on the main ridge paths. The site is open ground with little shade, so go early or late in summer, and keep an eye on heat announcements, since open-air sites have been closed through the hottest hours during official heatwaves. Combine it with the walk along the south slope.

The Hill of the Nymphs

North of the Pnyx on the same ridge, this hill carries the nineteenth-century Athens Observatory and sees almost nobody. The view of the Acropolis is more oblique than from the Pnyx, but the light in the last twenty minutes of the day is the best on the ridge. It is also the quietest place within fifteen minutes of the Acropolis, which counts for a lot at the end of a day of site-hopping.

The paths up here are part of the same network of walkways built on the ridge, so wear shoes with grip, as the surfaces turn slippery in rain. There is no ticket and no formal entrance. Bring water, since there is nothing to buy on the hill.

The hour

An hour before sunset for the gold on the marble, and stay through it: the ten minutes after the sun goes are when the rock is floodlit and the sky is still blue, which is when the picture actually works. In summer that is around 20:30 and in winter around 17:30 — and in winter the Acropolis itself has already closed, so this is the way to see it lit.

The Philopappos Monument

The white marble tomb on the summit, built between AD 114 and 116 for Gaius Julius Antiochus Philopappos, a prince of the royal house of Commagene who ended up a Roman consul and an Athenian benefactor. Half of it survives, with the seated figure of Philopappos in the central niche and a relief of him in a consular chariot below. It is a Roman answer to the Greek buildings across the valley, and it was deliberately placed where they would have to look at it.

The Pnyx

A semicircular terrace cut into the north slope, where the assembly of Athenian citizens met to vote from about 500 BC. Six thousand men stood on this ground and the speaker stood on the bema, a block of living rock left standing at the front, with the Acropolis behind him. There is no fence, no ticket and usually nobody there, which for the birthplace of the show of hands is a strange thing to be able to say.

The Prison of Socrates

Three chambers cut into the rock on the lower slope of Philopappos, closed behind iron bars and labelled as the prison where Socrates was held. The identification is traditional rather than proven. Most archaeologists think the chambers are a rock-cut house or storage rooms, not a prison at all.

Socrates died in 399 BC, but no source ties this specific cave to him. Come for two minutes on the way past rather than as a detour, since there is nothing to enter and no interpretation beyond the label. The paths here are part of the Pikionis walkways laid in the 1950s, and they are steep and slippery in rain.

Photograph through the bars and carry on up towards the summit monument.

The paths themselves

The architect Dimitris Pikionis laid out the paths up Philopappos and along its south slope between 1954 and 1957. He built them from broken marble and stone salvaged from demolished Athenian houses, fitting old paving and fragments into a landscape that looks accidental and is entirely designed. They are considered one of the finest works of modern Greek architecture, and they are the reason the hill feels older and quieter than it is.

Look down as you walk and you will see carved fragments set into the surfaces like pavement archaeology. One practical consequence of all this hand-laid stone: the surface is slippery in rain, so watch your step on the slopes, especially coming down towards the Acropolis side near dusk.