Kerameikos

Kerameikos is where Athenians buried their dead for well over a thousand years, and it is the most atmospheric ancient site in the city. It takes its name from the potters (kerameis) who worked here beside the Eridanos stream, and it straddled the city wall at its two most important gates. The Dipylon, the double gate, was the main entrance to Athens and the start of the road to Plato's Academy; the Sacred Gate next to it carried the Sacred Way to Eleusis, along which the great procession of the Eleusinian Mysteries set out. Between the gates stood the Pompeion, the building where the Panathenaic procession was prepared before it wound across the city to the Acropolis. Outside the walls ran the Street of the Tombs, lined with family plots for wealthy Athenians. Many grave monuments still stand in place or have been replaced by casts, and they are extraordinary: a charging marble bull, a marble hound, and reliefs of quiet farewells in which the dead and the living clasp hands. The small museum by the entrance, built in the 1930s to house finds from the German Archaeological Institute's excavations, holds the originals of some of the finest. Look for the stele of Dexileos, a young cavalryman killed in battle in 394 BC, shown riding down an enemy; the gentle relief of Ampharete holding her infant grandchild; an archaic sphinx; and a monumental kouros found as recently as 2002, alongside beautiful Geometric pottery. In mid-September 2026 Kerameikos reopened after a three-year restoration costing around four million euros. A new reception building at the Ermou Street entrance replaces the temporary ticket booth, a new exit building on Agion Asomaton Street adds a cafe, shop and spaces for families and exhibitions, roughly 4,500 square metres have been added to the visitor route, including areas with Hellenistic and Roman walls, houses and workshops that were previously closed, and more than 3,500 trees, shrubs and plants have been planted. The result is a site that feels like a quiet archaeological park, a world away from the Acropolis crowds.

Why it is special: Kerameikos is where you meet ordinary Athenians rather than gods and statesmen. The grave reliefs show mothers, children, soldiers and servants, often with tender gestures, and the inscriptions give their names. This is also where the city held its public funerals for the war dead; Thucydides sets Pericles' famous funeral oration in this district. Walking along the Street of the Tombs, with frogs croaking in the reeds of the Eridanos and tortoises wandering among the stones, is one of the most peaceful experiences in Athens, and in spring the site is full of wildflowers.

Tickets and hours: one ticket, ten euros for adults with a reduced rate for eligible visitors, covers both the site and the museum. It is sold at the new reception building on Ermou Street and through the official Hellenic Heritage platform; the old multi-site combined ticket has been discontinued. Opening hours follow the seasonal pattern of the city's archaeological sites, long in summer and shortening step by step through the autumn, and from November to March the site closes in the mid-afternoon. Entry is free on certain dates, including the first and third Sundays of the month from November to March. Wear comfortable shoes, as paths are uneven in places, and bring water in summer.

Fitting it in: Kerameikos sits at the bottom of Ermou Street at Thissio, a few minutes' walk from Thissio metro station and from the western entrance of the Ancient Agora. The Ancient Agora has also reopened restored routes, so the two together make an excellent, uncrowded morning; allow about an hour and a half for Kerameikos with the museum. Afterward, the neighbourhood of Gazi across the road, with the Technopolis arts centre in a converted gasworks, has plenty of places to eat, and the pedestrian promenade along Apostolou Pavlou leads back toward the Acropolis with views all the way.