Athens has become the best cultural city in the world: what every tourist should see there

The World Travel Awards have announced the winner in the Best Cultural City 2024 nomination. Athens won the prestigious award, beating out such iconic destinations as Paris, London, and New York.

Athens is located 8 km northeast of the port of Piraeus in the Aegean Sea. The ancient city was built around the rocky hills of the Acropolis and the Areopagus. The Express publication told more about the vacation in the cultural capital.

Athens is located in the south of the central plateau of Attica, where the Kefis and Ilissos mountain streams flow. Today, the Greek capital is home to about 3.7 million people. The area has been inhabited for thousands of years.

Ancient Athens was a powerful city-polis and an important center of learning. Socrates, Pericles, and Sophocles lived and worked here. It was in Athens that Plato founded the "academy" and Aristotle the lyceum. For centuries, Athens has been called the cradle of Western civilization and the birthplace of world democracy.

The city then fell under the rule of various empires over the centuries before becoming the capital of Greece in 1834 after the country became independent from the Ottoman Empire during the Greek War of Independence.

The ruins of the ancient period continue to be the main attraction for tourists.

Athens combines a variety of architectural styles, from ancient to neoclassical and constructivist. The ensemble of the Athenian Acropolis was built in the 5th century BC, in the time of Pericles, from Pentelian marble. The main buildings include the temple of Nika Aptheros (421 BC), the Propylaea (437-432 BC, architect Mnesicles), the Doric temple of the goddess Athena the Virgin – the Parthenon (447-432 BC, architects Iktin and Kallikrates), the Ionic Erechtheion (421-407 BC). The Theater of Dionysus, the Odeon of Herod the Attic, the Monument of Lysicrates (4th century BC), the Temple of Zeus Olympian, Hadrian's Arch, and the Athenian Agora have been preserved.

There are also many monuments of the Ottoman Empire. The Greek Parliament, the Presidential Palace, the National Library, the University of Athens, and the National Academy represent the modern history.

In 1896, the tradition of hosting the Olympic Games was revived in Athens.

Among the museums worth visiting:

• New Acropolis Museum;
• Museum of the Athenian Agora;
• National Archaeological Museum of Athens;
• Byzantine and Christian Museum;
• Archaeological Museum of Keramikos;
• National Historical Museum;
• Museum of Cycladic Art;
• National Art Gallery;
• Museum of Kanellopoulos.

Eleftherios Venizelos International Airport is located 32 km east of Athens, near the municipality of Spata. It serves an average of 560 flights daily.

Between the airport and the port in Piraeus, Athens also offers an excellent starting point for visiting other parts of Greece – you can travel inland or go to one of the hundreds of idyllic islands.

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