GREECE
Greece is a country in southeastern Europe with thousands of islands throughout the Aegean and Ionian seas. Influential in ancient times, it's often called the cradle of Western civilization. Athens, its capital, retains landmarks including the 5th-century B.C. Acropolis citadel with the Parthenon temple. Greece is also known for its beaches, from the black sands of Santorini to the party resorts of Mykonos.
Top attractions in Greece
Acropolis of Athens
The Acropolis of Athens is an ancient citadel located on an extremely rocky outcrop above the city of Athens and contains the remains of several ancient buildings of great architectural and historic significance, the most famous being the Parthenon.
Parthenon
The Parthenon is a former temple, on the Athenian Acropolis, Greece, dedicated to the goddess Athena, whom the people of Athens considered their patron. Construction began in 447 BC when the Athenian Empire was at the peak of its power.
Meteora
The Metéora - is a formation of immense monolithic pillars and hills-like huge rounded boulders which dominate the local area.
Acropolis Museum
The Acropolis Museum is an archaeological museum focused on the findings of the archaeological site of the Acropolis of Athens.
Mycenae
Mycenae is an archaeological site near Mikines in Greece, located about 90 kilometres southwest of Athens, in the north-eastern Peloponnese. Argos is 11 kilometres to the south; Corinth, 48 kilometres to the north.
Ionian Islands
The Ionian Islands are part of Greece and lie off the country’s west coast, in the Ionian Sea. The northernmost island, Corfu, has an old town with Renaissance, baroque and classical architecture. Corfu also features the 19th-century Liston, a promenade on the central square, with arcades and cafes. The 15th-century Old Fortress is nearby. The Palace of St. Michael and St. George is home to the Museum of Asian Art.
Temple of Olympian Zeus, Athens
The Temple of Olympian Zeus, also known as the Olympieion or Columns of the Olympian Zeus, is a monument of Greece and a former colossal temple at the centre of the Greek capital Athens
Knossos
Knossos is the largest Bronze Age archaeological site on Crete and has been called Europe's oldest city. The name Knossos survives from ancient Greek references to the major city of Crete.
National Archaeological Museum, Athens
The National Archaeological Museum in Athens houses some of the most important artifacts from a variety of archaeological locations around Greece from prehistory to late antiquity.
Plaka
Pláka is the old historical neighborhood of Athens, clustered around the northern and eastern slopes of the Acropolis, and incorporating labyrinthine streets and neoclassical architecture.
Ancient Agora of Athens
The Ancient Agora of Classical Athens is the best-known example of an ancient Greek agora, located to the northwest of the Acropolis and bounded on the south by the hill of the Areopagus and on the west by the hill known as the Agoraios Kolonos, also called Market Hill.
Elafonisi
Elafonisi is an island located close to the southwestern corner of the Mediterranean island of Crete, of which it is administratively a part, in the regional unit of Chania.
Samariá Gorge
The Samariá Gorge is a National Park of Greece since 1962 on the island of Crete – a major tourist attraction of the island – and a World's Biosphere Reserve. The gorge is in southwest Crete in the regional unit of Chania.
Monastiraki
Monastiraki is a flea market neighborhood in the old town of Athens, Greece, and is one of the principal shopping districts in Athens.
Erechtheion
The Erechtheion or Erechtheum is an ancient Greek temple on the north side of the Acropolis of Athens in Greece which was dedicated to both Athena and Poseidon.
Panathenaic Stadium
The Panathenaic Stadium also known as Kallimarmaro, is a multi-purpose stadium in Athens, Greece. One of the main attractions of Athens, it is the only stadium in the world built entirely of marble.
Mount Lycabettus
Mount Lycabettus, also known as Lycabettos, Lykabettos or Lykavittos, is a Cretaceous limestone hill in Athens, Greece at 300 meters above sea level.
Syntagma Square
Syntagma Square, is the central square of Athens. The Square is named after the Constitution that the first King of Greece Otto was obliged to grant, after a popular and military uprising on 3 September 1843.
Colossus of Rhodes
The Colossus of Rhodes was a statue of the Greek titan-god of the sun Helios, erected in the city of Rhodes, on the Greek island of the same name, by Chares of Lindos in 280 BC.
Mount Olympus
Mount Olympus is the highest mountain in Greece. It is located in the Olympus Range on the border between Thessaly and Macedonia, between the regional units of Pieria and Larissa, about 80 km southwest from Thessaloniki.
Temple of Hephaestus
The Temple of Hephaestus or Hephaisteion or earlier as the Theseion, is a well-preserved Greek temple; it remains standing largely as built.
Theatre of Dionysus
The Theatre of Dionysus Eleuthereus is a major theatre in Athens, built at the foot of the Athenian Acropolis.
Spinalonga
The island of Spinalonga, officially known as Kalydon, is located in the Gulf of Elounda in north-eastern Crete, in Lasithi, next to the town of Plaka. The island is further assigned to the area of Kalydon.
Odeon of Herodes Atticus
The Odeon of Herodes Atticus is a stone theatre structure located on the southwest slope of the Acropolis of Athens, Greece. The building was completed in 161 AD and then renovated in 1950.
Achilleion
Achilleion is a palace built in Gastouri, Corfu by Empress of Austria Elisabeth of Bavaria, also known as Sisi, after a suggestion by Austrian Consul Alexander von Warsberg. Elisabeth was a woman obsessed with beauty, and very powerful, but tragically vulnerable since the loss of her only son, Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria in the Mayerling Incident in 1889. A year later in 1890, she built a summer palace in the region of Gastouri (Γαστούρι), now the municipality of Achilleion, about ten kilometres to the south of the city of Corfu. The palace was designed with the mythical hero Achilles as its central theme. Corfu was Elizabeth's favourite vacation place and she built the palace because she admired Greece and its language and culture.
White Tower of Thessaloniki
The White Tower of Thessaloniki is a monument and museum on the waterfront of the city of Thessaloniki, capital of the region of Macedonia in northern Greece.
Palaiokastritsa
Palaiokastritsa is a village in northwestern Corfu. Corfu has been suggested to be the mythical island of the Phaeacians, and the bay of Palaiokastritsa to be the place where Odysseus disembarked and met Nausicaa for the first time, see Geography of the Odyssey. The monastery in Palaiokastritsa dates from 1225. There is a museum inside.
Arch of Hadrian
The Arch of Hadrian, most commonly known in Greek as Hadrian's Gate, is a monumental gateway resembling – in some respects – a Roman triumphal arch.
Melissani Cave
Melissani Cave or Melissani Lake, also Melisani is a cave located on the island of Kefalonia, northwest of Sami, about 5 km SE of Agia Efthymia, NE of Argostoli and NW of Poros. The Ionian Sea lies to the east with the Strait of Ithaca.
National Garden, Athens
The National Garden is a public park of 15.5 hectares in the center of the Greek capital, Athens. It is located directly behind the Greek Parliament building (The Old Palace) and continues to the South to the area where the Zappeion is located, across from the Panathenaiko or Kalimarmaro Olympic Stadium of the 1896 Olympic Games. The Garden also encloses some ancient ruins, tambourines and Corinthian capitals of columns, mosaics, and other features. On the Southeast side are the busts of Ioannis Kapodistrias, the first governor of Greece, and of the Philhellene Jean-Gabriel Eynard. On the South side are the busts of the celebrated Greek poets Dionysios Solomos, author of the Greek National Hymn, and Aristotelis Valaoritis.
Akrotiri
Akrotiri is a Minoan Bronze Age settlement on the volcanic Greek island of Santorini (Thera). The settlement was destroyed in the Theran eruption about 1627 BC and buried in volcanic ash, which preserved the remains of fine frescoes and many objects and artworks. The settlement has been suggested as a possible inspiration for Plato's story of Atlantis. The site has been excavated since 1967.
Antipaxos
Antipaxos is a small island in Greece, about 3 kilometres to the south of Paxos. It is administratively part of the municipality of Paxoi in Corfu regional unit in western Greece. As of 2011, the resident population of the island was 20.
Corinth Canal
The Corinth Canal is a canal that connects the Gulf of Corinth with the Saronic Gulf in the Aegean Sea. It cuts through the narrow Isthmus of Corinth and separates the Peloponnese from the Greek mainland, arguably making the peninsula an island.
Palace of the Grand Master of the Knights of Rhodes
The Palace of the Grand Master of the Knights of Rhodes, also known as the Kastello, is a medieval castle in the city of Rhodes, on the island of Rhodes in Greece. It is one of the few examples of Gothic architecture in Greece.
Propylaea
A propylaea, propylea or propylaia is any monumental gateway in Greek architecture. Much the best known Greek example is the propylaea that serves as the entrance to the Acropolis in Athens.
Navagio
Navagio Beach, or Shipwreck Beach, is an exposed cove, sometimes referred to as "Smugglers Cove", on the coast of Zakynthos, in the Ionian Islands of Greece. Navagio Beach was originally known as Agios Georgios.
Zappeion
The Zappeion; is a building in the National Gardens of Athens in the heart of Athens, Greece. It is generally used for meetings and ceremonies, both official and private.
Gramvousa
Gramvousa also Grampousa refers to two small uninhabited islands off the coast of north-western Crete in the regional unit of Chania. They are administered from the municipality of Kissamos.
Heraklion Archaeological Museum
The Heraklion Archaeological Museum is a museum located in Heraklion on Crete. It is one of the greatest museums in Greece[1]and the best in the world for Minoan art, as it contains the most notable and complete collection of artifacts of the Minoan civilization of Crete.
Benaki Museum
The Benaki Museum, established and endowed in 1930 by Antonis Benakis in memory of his father Emmanuel Benakis, is housed in the Benakis family mansion in downtown Athens, Greece.
Imerovigli
Imerovigli is a village on the island of Santorini, Greece, adjacent to the north of the island capital Fira. Imerovigli is mostly famous for its beautiful sunset, that it is called "balcony to the Aegean"
Temple of Athena Nike
The Temple of Athena Nike is a temple on the Acropolis of Athens. It was named after the Greek goddess, Athena Nike. Built around 420BC, the temple is the earliest fully Ionic temple on the Acropolis.
Delphi Archaeological Museum
Delphi Archaeological museum is one of the principal museums of Greece and one of the most visited. It is operated by the Greek Ministry of Culture.
Kolonaki
Kolonaki, literally "Little Column", is a neighborhood in central Athens, Greece. It is located on the southern slopes of Lycabettus hill.
Areopagus
The Areopagus is a prominent rock outcropping located northwest of the Acropolis in Athens, Greece. Its English name is the composite form of the Greek name Areios Pagos, translated "Ares Rock".
Porto Katsiki
Porto Katsiki is a Beach on the Ionian island of Lefkada, Greece. The name is said to be because formerly only goats could reach this area. The beach is famed for its landscape and clear blue sea. It is located at the bottom of a concave pale cliff.
Temple of Zeus, Olympia
The Temple of Zeus at Olympia was an ancient Greek temple in Olympia, Greece, dedicated to the god Zeus.
Athena Parthenos
Athena Parthenos is a lost massive chryselephantine sculpture of the Greek goddess Athena, made by Phidias and his assistants and housed in the Parthenon in Athens. Its epithet was an essential character of the goddess herself.