The hook
The rock at the centre of Athens, crowned by the Parthenon, the building that has defined what "classical" means for two and a half thousand years, still standing over a chaotic modern city.
01Why it's worth it
The Acropolis is a fortified rock that the Athenians rebuilt in the fifth century BC as a showcase of the confident, democratic city they had become, and the Parthenon on top is the result: a marble temple whose proportions have been studied and copied ever since. Up close it is scaffolded, weathered, and stripped of the sculptures that ended up in London and elsewhere, so the imagination has to do some work, but the sheer age and influence of the thing carry it. The rock also holds the elegant Erechtheion with its porch of maiden columns, and it looks down over the whole sprawl of Athens to the sea. The excellent Acropolis Museum at the foot rehouses the surviving marbles with a pointed empty space where the missing ones belong. It is crowded, hot, and central, and it is still the foundation stone of a huge slice of Western culture.
02How to experience it
Be at the gate for opening or go in the final hours; midday in summer is a furnace on bare marble with no shade. Do the Acropolis Museum the same day to see the sculptures and understand what is missing. Wander the Plaka and Anafiotika lanes below, and climb Filopappou or Lycabettus hill for the rock lit up at night.