The Ancient Agora of Athens is the great open marketplace and civic square that lies on the low ground northwest of the Acropolis, the beating heart of the classical city. For centuries it was where Athens did almost everything that mattered: it was the commercial market, the political forum, the law court, the religious sanctuary and the social meeting place all at once. Here the citizens of Athens gathered to trade, to vote, to serve on juries and to argue, and it is remembered above all as one of the birthplaces of democracy, the place where the ordinary business of self-government was carried on in the open air. To walk the Agora is to walk the ground where the everyday life of ancient Athens actually happened.
What survives today is a green, excavated valley of foundations, monuments and one astonishing near-complete building. On the western rise stands the Temple of Hephaestus, the Hephaisteion, built around 449 BC in the Doric order and widely regarded as the best-preserved ancient Greek temple anywhere in the world, its columns, walls and roofline still standing much as they were raised. Along the eastern side rises the Stoa of Attalos, a long colonnaded hall fully reconstructed in the 1950s by the American School of Classical Studies, which now houses the Museum of the Ancient Agora and its finds from the excavations. Between them lie the traces of the buildings that ran the Athenian state — the Bouleuterion, or council house; the round Tholos where the executive committee dined and slept on duty; the law courts; and the Altar of the Twelve Gods from which the Athenians measured distances across their land.
The Agora is also a place of the mind. It was in and around this square that Socrates spent his days questioning his fellow citizens, that Plato and Aristotle knew and taught, and where, generations later, the Apostle Paul is remembered debating with the philosophers of Athens. The site sits within easy walking distance of the Acropolis, the lively Monastiraki square and the lanes of Plaka, and it is reached in minutes from the Monastiraki and Thissio metro stations. Because entry is now timed by the hour and the site shares the crowd rhythm of the Acropolis nearby, we handle the ticketing in your own language and reserve the slot you want, so you can give your attention to the monuments instead of the queue. Note that the Ancient Agora is a separate site and ticket from both the Acropolis on the hill above and the smaller Roman Agora a short walk to the east.
