The fifteen columns
Seventeen-metre Corinthians of Greece's hugest temple.
Ava Βabili — CC BY-SA 4.0 · George E. Koronaios — CC BY-SA 4.0 · George E. Koronaios — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Giles Laurent — CC BY-SA 4.0
The Olympieion was the largest temple in all Greece — and its longest labour: begun by 6th-century BC tyrants, finished by Emperor Hadrian 638 years later (132 AD) with one hundred and four giant Corinthian columns, seventeen metres each. Fifteen still tower — and the famous fallen one lies in its marble vertebrae exactly as the 1852 storm felled it: a Greek column's anatomy lesson on the ground. At its door stands Hadrian's Arch, boundary of two cities: the east face carved "this is the city of Hadrian", the west "this is Athens, city of Theseus" — the gate between old and new Athens, free on the pavement. The site is open and sun-struck, the visit short — its best frame the Acropolis behind the columns. On the combo, the marble stadium minutes away.
Seventeen-metre Corinthians of Greece's hugest temple.
The 1852 vertebrae as they dropped — column anatomy grounded.
Theseus' city west, Hadrian's east.
Vasilissis Olgas, 10557 Athens
Arch of HadrianA lone marble arch about eighteen metres high standing at the roadside between t2 minutes walk4.5
PlakaThe oldest continuously inhabited quarter of Athens, called "the neighbourhood o5 minutes walk
The Acropolis MuseumThe Acropolis Museum ranks with the new millennium's greatest: glass and light a5 minutes walk4.8
AnafiotikaA complete Greek island village hidden beneath the Acropolis rock, two minutes f7 minutes walk
The Ilias Lalaounis Jewellery MuseumA jewellery museum on the southern slope of the Acropolis devoted to the work of7 minutes walk4.6Scale does it: stand beneath a Corinthian crown seventeen metres up and understand why the god of gods needed six centuries. A combo hour between arch and stadium — in context unquestioned; solo, for column lovers.