Some weekends the city gets too much and the kids need open space. These are the trips we'd make in a day: ancient temples above the sea, hilltop forts with walls to climb, a canal cut deep through rock, and lakes and trails with room to run. Each one is close enough to leave after breakfast and be back by bedtime.
Lavreotiki Geopark covers the whole municipality around the port town of Lavrio, about 60 km from Athens, where the ancient Athenians mined silver. The area holds around 1,000 old mining galleries and as many shafts, and seven geo-paths lead walkers past rock formations and former mine sites.
The district has more different minerals than any other place on Earth, so it suits kids who collect rocks.
The Sanctuary of Artemis at Brauron is where young Athenian girls once served the goddess as "she-bears", dancing and running races in saffron robes.
Kids can walk the restored Doric stoa, peek into its dining rooms with stone tables and cuttings for couch legs, and cross the only known Classical stone bridge in Greece, with cart wheel ruts still worn into its slabs.
A Doric temple built around 500 BC on a hilltop about 160 m up, on the island's east side. Its columns still stand, though the roof is gone, and on a clear day the Acropolis shows across the gulf.
The site museum rebuilds part of an older temple that burned around 510 BC, plus copies of the sculpted warriors from the Trojan War battles that once filled the pediments.
The Corinth Canal is a 6.3 km channel through the Isthmus of Corinth, finished in 1893, joining the Gulf of Corinth to the Saronic Gulf. Its rock walls rise up to 90 m, almost vertical.
From the bridges above, kids look straight down to the water, and with luck they see a ship pass through a gap only 24.6 m wide.
Acrocorinth is the fortress on the steep 575 m hill above Ancient Corinth. About 3,000 meters of walls, three defensive enclosures and gate towers ring a hilltop full of ruins from many centuries: a mosque, churches, the Frankish tower, a Byzantine cistern and the Upper Peirene fountain, tied to the winged horse Pegasus. The Sanctuary of Aphrodite sits at the top, with views over the Corinthian and Saronic Gulfs.
Ancient Corinth is the excavated lower city of a Greek city-state that rivaled Athens in classical times and later became a Roman city. Seven of the 38 Doric columns of the Temple of Apollo still stand, with the Acrocorinth rock rising behind them, and paths lead past Greek, Roman and Byzantine remains, including an ancient theater.
The site museum holds statues and finds from more than a century of digs.
The Temple of Poseidon stands on the headland at Cape Sounion, almost 60 meters above the sea, which surrounds it on three sides. Built around 444 to 440 BC, it still has 15 of its original 34 Doric marble columns standing.
Kids can hunt for the name of Lord Byron carved into the base of one column, then find the ruins of the Temple of Athena close by.
Lake Marathon is a reservoir built in 1931 to supply Athens with water. Its 285-meter dam is faced with the same Pentelic marble used on the Parthenon, and a replica of the Athenian Treasury at Delphi stands at its base.
Reeds, plane trees and eucalyptus line the banks. A visit pairs well with Schinias Marathon National Park and the Tomb and Archaeological Museum of Marathon.
Some weekends the city gets too much and the kids need open space. These are the trips we'd make in a day: ancient temples above the sea, hilltop forts with walls to climb, a canal cut deep through rock, and lakes and trails with room to run. Each one is close enough to leave after breakfast and be back by bedtime.
Lavreotiki Geopark covers the whole municipality around the port town of Lavrio, about 60 km from Athens, where the ancient Athenians mined silver. The area holds around 1,000 old mining galleries and as many shafts, and seven geo-paths lead walkers past rock formations and former mine sites.
The district has more different minerals than any other place on Earth, so it suits kids who collect rocks.
The Sanctuary of Artemis at Brauron is where young Athenian girls once served the goddess as "she-bears", dancing and running races in saffron robes.
Kids can walk the restored Doric stoa, peek into its dining rooms with stone tables and cuttings for couch legs, and cross the only known Classical stone bridge in Greece, with cart wheel ruts still worn into its slabs.
A Doric temple built around 500 BC on a hilltop about 160 m up, on the island's east side. Its columns still stand, though the roof is gone, and on a clear day the Acropolis shows across the gulf.
The site museum rebuilds part of an older temple that burned around 510 BC, plus copies of the sculpted warriors from the Trojan War battles that once filled the pediments.
The Corinth Canal is a 6.3 km channel through the Isthmus of Corinth, finished in 1893, joining the Gulf of Corinth to the Saronic Gulf. Its rock walls rise up to 90 m, almost vertical.
From the bridges above, kids look straight down to the water, and with luck they see a ship pass through a gap only 24.6 m wide.
Acrocorinth is the fortress on the steep 575 m hill above Ancient Corinth. About 3,000 meters of walls, three defensive enclosures and gate towers ring a hilltop full of ruins from many centuries: a mosque, churches, the Frankish tower, a Byzantine cistern and the Upper Peirene fountain, tied to the winged horse Pegasus. The Sanctuary of Aphrodite sits at the top, with views over the Corinthian and Saronic Gulfs.
Ancient Corinth is the excavated lower city of a Greek city-state that rivaled Athens in classical times and later became a Roman city. Seven of the 38 Doric columns of the Temple of Apollo still stand, with the Acrocorinth rock rising behind them, and paths lead past Greek, Roman and Byzantine remains, including an ancient theater.
The site museum holds statues and finds from more than a century of digs.
The Temple of Poseidon stands on the headland at Cape Sounion, almost 60 meters above the sea, which surrounds it on three sides. Built around 444 to 440 BC, it still has 15 of its original 34 Doric marble columns standing.
Kids can hunt for the name of Lord Byron carved into the base of one column, then find the ruins of the Temple of Athena close by.
Lake Marathon is a reservoir built in 1931 to supply Athens with water. Its 285-meter dam is faced with the same Pentelic marble used on the Parthenon, and a replica of the Athenian Treasury at Delphi stands at its base.
Reeds, plane trees and eucalyptus line the banks. A visit pairs well with Schinias Marathon National Park and the Tomb and Archaeological Museum of Marathon.
