Tales from the Tulls: Athenian Agora & National Archaeological Museum in Athens, Greece

July 9, 2012

Greece/Turkey Trip

We stopped for lunch at a quaint little restaurant and had one of the traditional gyros that are so popular in Greece. We then headed to the Athenian Agora and walked through the grounds. It covered a fairly large area and they were still working on and excavating parts of it. We spent quite a bit of time here and really enjoyed the area.

Church of the Holy Apostles Solaki.
This is the only monument apart from the Temple of Hephaistos that has
remained in tact since it's foundation.

Window in the church

Dome in the church

Alcove in church

Temple of Hephaistos on the Athenian Agora.
(This is also known as the Temple of Hephaestus)

This is the best preserved temple in all of Greece. It is the only temple in Greece that still has a roof. It was dedicated to two Gods - Hephaistos and Athena. The temple began construction in 449 B.C. Here is a link for more info.

This is the Stoa of Attalos and was originally built in 150 B.C.
It has been renovated and now is used as the Ancient Agora Museum.
It houses many of the statues -- some with and some without heads;
along with pottery and other artifacts.

Here are a few heads; sorry, I have no idea who these people are, but I should mention
that many throughout this museum and other museums as well, are missing their noses.

Excavating of the Athenian Agora.
This is just one of the many sites they are still excavating in Greece!

We could see the Acropolis from the Agora...
seems like you can see the Acropolis from everywhere!

We also stopped at the National Archaeological Museum which was founded in 1889. If I remember right, there were 95 hallways or rooms and tons and tons of artifacts. We are not big on museums, but we made a quick run through it. There are findings from ancient Greece and all over the Greek World. The exhibits include, statues, frescoes, vases, jewelry, weapons, etc.

The most significant item of the museum is the golden mask of Agamemnon.
We were not allowed to take a picture of it, but I got this from the web.

Here are just a few pics I took:

Tomb

Gold Jewelry, etc.

Vases

After viewing the Agora, we stopped and bought some ice cream, taking an ice cream bar back to Lambros. We had had a discussion about it being his and Dennis' favorite snack. He was very appreciative and ended up wearing part of his chocolate on his nice maize colored pants, but he said it was worth every bite. He said in all the years he has given tours, we were the first to ever buy him ice cream. We really had fun with Lambros.

Here is a picture of him where we ran into one of his colleagues at the look-out point; and as you see him in this picture, he was always smiling. We loved him! He was young, fun, and very knowledgeable about his home city of Athens. We were so glad we booked the tour and had him for a guide. He was proud of his home city of Athens.