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Welcome to Efhesus A craggy limestone plateau, watered by springs and rising an abrupt 100m out of the plain of Attica, the Acropolis (summer daily 8am–7pm; closes 2.30pm in winter; 2000dr; metro Monastiráki) was one of the earliest settlements in Greece, drawing a Neolithic community to its slopes around 5000 BC. In Mycenaean times it was fortified around a royal palace and temples where the cult of Athena was introduced. In the ninth century BC, the Acropolis became the heart of the first Greek city-state, and in the wake of Athenian military supremacy and a peace treaty with the Persians in 449 BC, Pericles had the complex reconstructed under the direction of architect and sculptor Pheidias, producing most of the monuments you see today, including the Partheneon. Having survived more or less intact for well over two thousand years, the Acropolis finally fell victim to the demands of war. In 1687 besieging Venetians ignited a Turkish gunpowder magazine in the Parthenon, blasting off the roof, and in 1801 Lord Elgin removed the frieze, which he later sold to the British Museum, though there is hope it will soon be restored to Greece. Meanwhile, generations of visitors have slowly worn down the Parthenon's surfaces; and, more recently, smog has been turning the marble to dust. Since 1981, visitors have been barred from the Parthenon's actual precinct and a major restoration scheme is in operation. Rock-hewn stairs immediately below the entrance to the Acropolis ascend the low hill of the Areopagus, the site of the court of criminal justice. Following the road or path over the flank of the Acropolis, you come out on to Leofóros Dhionissíou Areopayítou, by the Odeion of Herodes Atticus. Turning right, a network of paths leads up Filopáppou Hill, its summit capped by a grandiose monument to a Roman senator and consul, Filopappos, who is depicted on its frieze, driving his chariot. North, along the main path, which follows a line of truncated ancient walls, is the church of Áyios Dhimítrios, with Byzantine frescoes. Above the church, further to the north, rises the Hill of the Pnyx, an area used in Classical Athens as the meeting place for the democratic assembly. All except the most serious political issues were aired here, the hill on the north side providing a semicircular terrace from which to address the crowds of at least 6000 citizens that met more than forty times a year.The second-century Roman Odeion of Herodes Atticus, restored for performances of music and Classical drama during the summer festival, dominates the south slope of the Acropolis hill. It is open only for summer evening performances; dates can be obtained from Tourist Police (tel 171), or from Athens Festival box office at Stadhíou 4 (tel 01/322 3111). The main interest on the slope lies in the earlier Greek sites to the east. Pre-eminent among these is the Theatre of Dionysus, beside the main site entrance on Leof. Dhionissíou Areopayítou (daily 8.30am–7pm; winter closes 2.30pm; 500dr). One of the most evocative locations in the city, it was here that the masterpieces of Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides and Aristophanes were first performed. The ruins are impressive; rebuilt in the fourth century BC, the theatre could hold some 17,000 spectators. To the west of the theatre extend the ruins of the Asclepion, a sanctuary devoted to the healing god Asclepius and built around a sacred spring. The curative centre was probably incorporated into the Byzantine church of the doctor-saints, Kosmas and Damian, of which there are prominent remains. Nearer to the road are the foundations of the Roman Stoa of Eumenes, a colonnade of stalls which stretched to the Herodes Atticus Odeion.
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