The carved grave stones
Families taking leave of their dead โ Greek art at its tenderest.
George E. Koronaios โ CC0 ยท Rakoon โ CC0 ยท Rakoon โ CC0 ยท Rakoon โ CC0
Yes if you will visit **three sites or more**, which covers most visitors. Athens's combined archaeological ticket includes the **Acropolis and its south slope, the Ancient Agora, the Roman Agora, Hadrian's Library, Kerameikos, the Temple of Olympian Zeus and the Lyceum** at one price valid over several days, saving a meaningful amount against buying each separately. โ It is sold at the window of any included site, and buying it at a **quieter site than the Acropolis** (Kerameikos, say) saves you the queue.
Because Athenian grave monuments are **the tenderest and most human thing Greek art left**. You will see no gods, heroes or victories here, but ordinary scenes of farewell carved with great skill: a mother reaching for her child, a couple clasping hands for the last time, a maid carrying her mistress's box. It is an entirely different face of the civilisation you know from the Acropolis temples. Add that the site is **quiet and shaded** and rarely crowded โ a real gain in an Athens summer.
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**Ancient Athens's cemetery** and its potters' quarter โ and the source of the word "ceramic" in the world's languages. This was the bank of the Eridanos river outside the city walls, and Athenians were buried here for centuries, among them those who fell in the city's wars. In this very place **Pericles** delivered his famous funeral oration in 431 BC for the dead of the first year of the Peloponnesian War โ one of the most celebrated texts in political history. The site is crossed by the **Sacred Way** to Eleusis and by the **Dipylon Gate**, the largest gate of ancient Athens, from which the great procession set out for the Acropolis. What distinguishes a visit is that the site is **full of carved grave monuments** standing in place: bulls, men on horseback, and families taking leave of their dead in quiet, affecting scenes โ the tenderest thing Greek art left behind. The small museum inside holds excavation finds: jars, vessels and the original sculptures, replaced outside by casts. โ It is among the **quietest archaeological sites in Athens** โ rarely crowded, with shade and tortoises wandering among the stones.
Families taking leave of their dead โ Greek art at its tenderest.
Ancient Athens's largest gate and the start of the great procession.
Among Athens's calmest ancient sites โ with tortoises and shade.
148 Ermou Street, 10553 Athens