Greek myths feel different when you stand where they were set. On the Acropolis, Athena beat Poseidon for the city with an olive tree. At Sounio, King Aegeus watched the sea for his son Theseus's ship. Up on Acrocorinth, Bellerophon caught the winged horse Pegasus at a spring. Here's what we checked, from the Parthenon to a clifftop temple of Poseidon, plus the museums holding the gods and heroes.
A flat-topped rock 150 m above sea level, crowned by temples built in the fifth century BC: the Parthenon, the Propylaea gateway, the Erechtheion and the small Temple of Athena Nike. Kids can spot the Erechtheion porch held up by stone women (the caryatids), and the ancient Theatre of Dionysus sits on the south slope.
Suits school-age kids who know a few Greek myths more than toddlers.
The Acropolis Museum holds the sculptures and objects found on the Acropolis rock and its slopes. Glass floors look down onto the excavated remains of an ancient neighborhood, which you can also walk through from the courtyard.
Inside are the original Caryatids from the Erechtheion and Archaic statues with traces of their paint. The top-floor Parthenon Gallery spaces its columns like the temple's, with glass walls facing the Acropolis.
Greece's largest archaeology museum holds more than 20,000 objects, spanning Greek history from prehistory to late antiquity. Kids tend to make for the Mycenaean gold, including the mask once wrongly named for Agamemnon, the Artemision Bronze, Egyptian mummies, Bronze Age wall paintings from Akrotiri on Santorini, and the Antikythera mechanism.
Out front, a garden lined with sculptures has a café.
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.
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.
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 museum holds Cycladic figurines, ancient Greek and Cypriot art, and a gallery on daily life in antiquity, spread over two buildings joined by a corridor.
Families can rent the Family Kit at the entrance: a box of maps, exhibit copies, story cards and an augmented reality app that puts kids in photos with the largest figurine. Weekend workshops run by age group, from toddlers with a parent to 12-year-olds.
Greek myths feel different when you stand where they were set. On the Acropolis, Athena beat Poseidon for the city with an olive tree. At Sounio, King Aegeus watched the sea for his son Theseus's ship. Up on Acrocorinth, Bellerophon caught the winged horse Pegasus at a spring. Here's what we checked, from the Parthenon to a clifftop temple of Poseidon, plus the museums holding the gods and heroes.
A flat-topped rock 150 m above sea level, crowned by temples built in the fifth century BC: the Parthenon, the Propylaea gateway, the Erechtheion and the small Temple of Athena Nike. Kids can spot the Erechtheion porch held up by stone women (the caryatids), and the ancient Theatre of Dionysus sits on the south slope.
Suits school-age kids who know a few Greek myths more than toddlers.
The Acropolis Museum holds the sculptures and objects found on the Acropolis rock and its slopes. Glass floors look down onto the excavated remains of an ancient neighborhood, which you can also walk through from the courtyard.
Inside are the original Caryatids from the Erechtheion and Archaic statues with traces of their paint. The top-floor Parthenon Gallery spaces its columns like the temple's, with glass walls facing the Acropolis.
Greece's largest archaeology museum holds more than 20,000 objects, spanning Greek history from prehistory to late antiquity. Kids tend to make for the Mycenaean gold, including the mask once wrongly named for Agamemnon, the Artemision Bronze, Egyptian mummies, Bronze Age wall paintings from Akrotiri on Santorini, and the Antikythera mechanism.
Out front, a garden lined with sculptures has a café.
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.
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.
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 museum holds Cycladic figurines, ancient Greek and Cypriot art, and a gallery on daily life in antiquity, spread over two buildings joined by a corridor.
Families can rent the Family Kit at the entrance: a box of maps, exhibit copies, story cards and an augmented reality app that puts kids in photos with the largest figurine. Weekend workshops run by age group, from toddlers with a parent to 12-year-olds.
