Recently I spent a few days in Athens, my first time in Greece, allowing me to pin a new country on my Worldmappin map.
Panathenaic Stadium
I took it easy on the first day, getting my bearings around the city first before I dive into the main tourist hot spots. In the morning, actually it was nearly noon time, when I arrived at the Panathenaic Stadium . The first modern day Olympics was held here in 1896.
Tickets
Tickets to the stadium are only available at the door, you can't buy them online. I think that's really annoying and very inefficient. I was queueing for 20 minutes under the sun before I got my tickets, imagine how bad it would be during summer with all the tourists.
If you don't want to queue up for tickets, and save €10, you can still see the stadium. I took this photo from the outside, the entire stadium is visible, albeit at a distance. However, you don't get the experience of visiting such an iconic place. Knowing that a stadium was built here from as far back as 330 BC, walking on the track where modern day Olympic games started nearly 130 yeaes ago, sitting on the marble seats, and walking to the top levels to get a view of the Acropolis. That's the experience I'm talking about.
Panathenaic Stadium Vs modern day stadiums
My first impression of stepping inside the stadium was how small it is. Naturally I was comparing this to modern day stadiums such as London, where I went for the 2012 Olympics. Bearing in mind the Panathenaic Stadium was built well over a century ago, its scale is obviously going to be much smaller. But where it lacks in size, it beats in other areas.
Its claim to the birthplace of modern day Olympics can never be taken away. To date, it's the only stadium in the world made entirely out of marble. Yes, that record could potentially be broken. Money can buy pretty much anything in the world, but it can never buy class and heritage, and that's what you get here.
Diodes
Another must see at the stadium is the diodes, the vaulted passageway underneath the spectator seats. Everywhere on the internet says this is an ancient entrance used by athletes to enter the stadium, but I couldn't find information on how ancient. From what I saw, it was pretty ancient, whatever that means 😅.Joking aside, it felt like I was walking into the unknown past.
Suddenly I enter a bright modernish building. What a contrast! The building hosts an exhibition if the posters and torches from the Olympics games from 1896 to date.
Of course I was particularly interested in the London Olympics posters. We held the games twice. First in 1948, the first one after the Second World War. And then in 2012. That was such an epic event and I even got tickets to see the games. It was very nice to see and compare the two posters 64 years apart.
Ruins on the Athens street
It's actually unfair to call these ruins as ruins are normally parts of unloved buildings left to decay. What you see on the streets in Athens are not unloved. They're all the foundation of what the city is today and magnificent open air museum.
Starting from the top left is the Temple of Olympian Zeus dating back to 6 BC. Zeus was the God of the Gods and commanded the largest temple in Athens with 104 columns each at 17m tall. Sadly even the greatest God couldn't protect his temple and today there's only a few columns left.
Below that is the Arch of Hadrian from 131 AD. The arch is the entrance to the city of Athens. What a difference a few hundred years make, the arch is still standing strong.
Likewise the Roman Agora on the top right is still pretty complete despite being some two centuries older than the Arch of Hadrian.
And finally, Hadrian's Library is from the same period as Roman Agora 132 AD. It may not be the most impressive archeological site but it did used to be the biggest library in Athens. What you see here is just a fraction of the entire site.
Parthenon
The Parthenon is the ultimate representation of ancient Greece. One cannot visit Athens without seeing it, just as you cannot visit London without seeing the Big Ben, Paris the Eiffel Tower, or New York the Statue of Liberty. You'll have to wait for my next post to see the Parthenon.
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