Family Adventures: Acropolis of Athens

The Acropolis of Athens is an ancient citadel located on a rocky outcrop above the city of Athens, Greece. Acropolis means highest point, extremity of a city.

The term acropolis is generic and there are many other acropolis in Greece. The Acropolis of Athens is significant because it contains the ruins of several ancient buildings of great architectural and historical significance. The ruins include The Propylaea -Monumental Entrance, Parthenon - Temple for Goddess Athena, The Erechtheion, Old Temple (flattened, no upright structure standing), Theatre of Dionysus .... The ruins looked more beautiful than the idealized acropolis of Athens in a painting to me. The ruins embody authentic history, time's passage, and a romantic sense of loss, they evok imagination.

As the high point of Athens, the views from Acropolis is panoramic. We saw Philopappos Hill and Lycabettus Hill, and decided to visit both places after the Acropolis visits.

Since no body lives at Acropolis, and there are trees and bushes, there are many birds at Acropolis, most commonly monk parakeets, magpies, pigeons, black redstart ...

We were surprised to see many cats, which were usually looked clean and heathy, wandering around ruins at Athens, and monasteries at Meteora. It turned out those are mostly stray cats. Due to a mix of ancient reverence, mild climate, and centuries of communal care where locals feed the cats, the cats are usually well taken care of.

Acropolis of Athens is recognized as a symbol of ancient Greek civilization, democracy, and Western culture. However it was hard to appreciate the cultural significance of Acropolis of Athens for me due to lack of systematic knowledge of Greek history and mythology. The visit to Athens was more of sightseeing to me, nevertheless it did prompt me to look into Greek culture a little bit more.

Views of Acropolis from outside of Acropolis of Athens - close and far