About Athens
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First Day Tribute Coin 2004 Athens Olympic Games
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Retail: $59.99 (67% off!)
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This is Greece"™s official First Day Cover Philatelic-Numismatic commemorative of the 2004 Summer Olympic Games in Athens Greece. The 2004 Summer Olympic Games commemorative stamp was cancelled with the official Athens postmark on the opening day of the Olympics August 13 2004.
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microSD/SD Data Card City Navigator NT with Preloaded Italy and Greece Maps
GARMIN microSD memory card City Navigator NT Italy and Greece. Contains full detailed coverage of Italy and Athens Greece.
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Europa Konzert from Athens
Athens, Greece was the splendid location for the Europa Konzert in 2004, with the Herodes Atticus Theatre hosting the events at the base...
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Athens (Greek: Αθήνα, Athína (IPA: )) is the capital of Greece and one of the most famous cities in the world, named after goddess Athena. Modern Athens is a bustling cosmopolitan metropolis, home to some 3.7 million people. The Athens metropolitan area is currently growing both northwards and eastwards across Attica and it constitutes the dominant center of economic, financial, industrial, cultural and political life in Greece today. The city is also rapidly becoming a leading business centre in Europe. Athens is located at .
Ancient Athens was a powerful city-state and and a renowned center of learning, home of Plato's Academy and Aristotle's Lyceum. It is considered to have been the cradle of Western civilisation, largely due to the immense impact of its cultural and political achievements during the 4th and 5th centuries BC on the rest of the then known European Continent. The heritage of the Athenian Enlightenment is still evident in the city, portrayed through a number of spectacular ancient monuments and artworks, the most famous of all being the Parthenon on the Acropolis ("high city"), nurtured by Ictinus, Callicrates and Phidias. The latter is widely regarded as one of the finest examples of Classical Greek architecture, still standing as an epic legacy to the West and indeed to the rest of the world. Many of these cultural landmarks were renovated ahead of the 2004 Olympic Games.
Tourist attractions
Athens has been a popular tourist destination even since antiquity. Over the past decade, the infrastructure and social amenities of Athens have been radically following the city's successful bid to stage the 2004 Olympic Games. The Greek state, aided by the E.U., has poured money into major infrastructure projects such as the new, state-of-the-art "Eleftherios Venizelos" International Airport, the massive expansion of the Metro system, and the new Attiki Odos ring-road. Home to a vast number of 5 and 4 star hotels, the city is currently the 6th most visited capital in Europe.
Entire parts of the city centre have been redeveloped under a masterplan called "Unification of Archaeological Sites of Athens" astynet.gr (external). Notably, the famous Dionysiou Aeropagitou street has been pedestrianised, forming a scenic route. The route starts from the Temple of Olympian Zeus at Vasilissis Olgas Avenue, continues under the southern slopes of the Acropolis near Plaka and finishes just outside the Temple of Hephaestus in Theseum. This route provides the visitors views of the Parthenon and the Agora (the meeting point of ancient Athenians), away from the busy city centre.
Syntagma Square (Constitution Square) is situated in central Athens and it is the site of the former Royal Palace, now the Greek Parliament and other 19th-century public buildings. Syntagma is the largest square of the city and it is also home to a number of luxurious hotels, including the historic Grande Bretagne, Athens' first hotel. Syntagma is essentially the tourist core of the city, being in the centre of an area where most of the famous ancient monuments are located, all within a radius of 2 km. Near Syntagma Square stands the Kallimarmaro Stadium, the place where the first modern Olympic Games took place in 1896. It is a replica of the ancient Athens Stadium. It is the only major stadium (60,000 spectators) made entirely of white marble from Penteli, the same as that used for the construction of the Parthenon.
Athens features a number of hills. Lykavittos is the tallest hill of the city proper that, according to an ancient legend, was actually a boulder thrown down from the sky by Goddess Athena. Located in the city centre, near Alexandras' and Vassilisis Sofia's Avenues, it offers views of sprawling Athens below. On top of it, stands the St. George's church. Philopappos Hill is yet another famous hill, located just to the southwest of Acropolis.
The city's classical museums include the National Archaeological Museum at Patission Street (which holds the world's greatest collection of Greek art), the Benaki Museum in Piraeus Street (including its new Islamic Art branch) benaki.gr (external), the Byzantine Museum and the Museum of Cycladic Art in the central Kolonaki district (recommended for its collection of elegant white metamodern figures, more than 3,000 years old) cycladic-m.gr (external). Most museums were renovated ahead of the 2004 Olympics. A new Acropolis Museum is being built culture.gr (external) in the Makriyanni district according to a design by Swiss-french architect Bernard Tschumi. The Athens Planetarium eugenfound.edu.gr (external), located in Sygrou Avenue, is considered to be among the world's best.
The old campus of the University of Athens, located in the middle section of Panepistimiou Avenue, is one of the finest buildings in the city. This combined with the adjacent National Library and the Athens Academy form the imposing "Athens Trilogy", built in the mid-19th century. However, most of the university's functions have been moved to a much larger, modern campus located in the eastern suburb of Zográfou. The second most significant academic institution of the city is the Athens Polytechnic School (Ethniko Metsovio Politechnio), located in Patission Street. More than 20 students were killed inside the School in November 17, 1973 during the Athens Polytechnic Uprising against the military junta that ruled the nation from April 21, 1967 until July 23, 1974.