Athens Discount Rental Cars |
Amazing Car Rental Coupons
|
Athens Attractions and Things to See
Athens, the capital city of Greece, as well as
its most populated, dominating the Attica periphery, and one of
the oldest cities in the world, boasts about 3,400 years of
recorded history. It has become a cosmopolitan metropolis, a hub
for the country's political, cultural, financial and industrial
endeavors that has made it an alpha-world city, with a
magnificent and glorious history that began when it became a
powerful city-state, where it would be the home of Plato's
academy, Aristotle's Lyceum and a marvelous center for learning,
the arts and philosophy.
It has been referred to as the cradle
of western civilization and the birthplace of democracy, due
mainly to the impact of its political and cultural achievements
in the 4th and 5th century BC. Its classical heritage can still
be seen in the city, that are represented by numerous ancient
monuments and ruins, as well as fabulous works of art, the most
famous of all being the Parthenon, a key landmark of early
western civilization. It still contains a large variety of
ancient Roman and Byzantine monuments, along with smaller
Ottoman monuments that provide a look into the city's long
history throughout the millennia it has existed. It is home to
two World Heritage sites, the Acropolis of Athens and the
medieval Daphni Monastery.
The magnificent landmarks of the
modern period that made the city the capital of the independent
Greek state in 1833 include the Athens Trilogy that contains the
Athens University, the Academy of Athens and the National
Library of Greece and the Hellenic Parliament from the 19th
century. It would be the first city to host the Olympic Games in
1896, and in 2004, it would host the 2004 Summer Olympics. The
city houses the fabulous National Archaeological Museum that
highlight the world's biggest collection of ancient Greek
antiquities and the new Acropolis museum.
The oldest known human presence in Athens can be found in the
Cave of Schist that was dated between the 11th and 7th
millennium BC, making this city inhabited for over 7000 years,
with some of the most fabulous antiquities dating from this
period and showcased in the city's museum. It has a long and
amazing history, which means that visitors here can expect to
spend more time viewing these ancient relics and artifacts
because there are simply more of them, and span more historical
periods than even Jerusalem and the ancient cities of the
Mideast.
The city has many beautiful architectural buildings from
thousands of year ago, and many that were built throughout those
periods that followed. It has many marvelous parks, but the
Parnitha National Park has many well marked paths, caves,
springs, torrents and gorges that are now protected from the
ravages of tourism, with hiking and biking being very popular in
the four mountains. Its National Garden of Athens would be
finished in 1840 and contains 45 beautiful acres of green space
in the midst of this bustling city.
The city has become one of the world's main centers of
archaeological research, and besides its national institutions,
like the Archaeological Society, Athens University and numerous
archaeological museums that include the Byzantine Museum, the
National Archaeological Museum, the ancient Agora, Acropolis and
Kerameikos, the Cycladic Museum and the Epigraphic Museum, the
city is home to the Demokrtos laboratory for Archaeometry and
many regional and national archaeological institutes that form
part of the Greek Department of Culture.
It houses a plethora of museums, restaurants, hotels,
entertainment and performing arts venues and sporting events. To
describe all of the many places to visit and tour, it is a city
of great hospitality, with ancient sites that could take months
to tour completely, so, if you should decide to visit this
fantastic city, be sure to study it well and consider what are
the most significant places that interest you and your family.