Agora the Market Place and Ancient City of Athens
Agora and other archeological sites in Athens are in ruins; some are just scattered stones which roughly etched the shapes of the foundations of old buildings and rooms.
The Agora as it was known was one of the most important part of the ancient city of Athens. It was a busy market place and civic center in its heydays. If you are here with a blank mind it can be quite confusing and frustrating. And if you are not with any guided tours it is best you read up about the place so that you can understand and correlate the sites and sights.
I had referred to some books. There are plenty of informative boards that describe the place. One has to use a lot of imagination. For me the very act of stepping on sites of ‘150BC and beyond’ made me ancient!
My school history textbook characters Aristotle, Socrates, Plato more seem to come to life, walking around this same site discussing philosophy, science, medicine. What I could and how far I could stretch my imagination seemed to make more meaning than what I could actually see!
Agora Athens – Ruins
The Agora of Athens was teeming with life in the BCs! A tour through the museum in Agora gives a good idea of their clothes, footwear, and head gears worn by them then.
Ancient Agora, this is the same place where Socrates taught. Hippocrates, the father of modern medicine and its Hippocratic Oath, and Pythagoras, a mathematician who developed the geometric theory of a triangle’s sides, were both highly public figures who taught and shared ideas in their own hometown agoras.
You can read more here if you are interested in Socrates. The Agora.
Roman Agora Athens
After the tour of Greek Agora we walked to Roman Agora, also called the Market of Caesar and Augustus.
The monumental Gate of Athena Archegetis (“Athena the Leader”) has an inscription which is a record of the fact that Julius Caesar and Augustus provided the funds for the construction of Roman Agora in the 1st century B.C.
The Roman Agora, much smaller than the Greek Agora, is open area with no shade, surrounded by colonnades on all four sides. The huge space inside the enclosure has ruins and several columns still standing tall and strong.
The ruins that exist there are of a series of shops, a fountain. a second entrance on the east, leading up to a public latrine and the Tower of the Winds.
I have this strange weakness for these columns and have taken plenty of pictures of them against the blue sky and selfies with column in the background.
The Tower of Winds was shut to tourists that day.
Location of Roman Agora
This is located to the north of Acropolis and to east of Greek Agora. All three sites are connected by well laid out streets and at a short distance from each other.
See the best preserved temple of Athens: Temple of Hephaestus in Athens
Library of Hadrian
After the tour of Roman Agora we walked to the Library of Hadrian is very close to it and it is possible to cover both these sites in an hour.
The Library of Hadrian provided the people of Athens with a new, multi-purpose, public square and cultural center that contained a garden, works of art, a library, and lecture halls.
Just imagine how advanced they were then! This complex too has a huge open area inside; earlier plans reveal a central pool and garden, surrounded by columns made from marble.
Kerameikos Ancient Cemetery of Athens
After the tour of the ancient library we took the metro to reach Kerameikos – the Ancient Cemetery of Athens. Kerameikos, is in the northwest of Acropolis; in fact the farthest.
It has the cemetery and the “demosion sema” (public burial monument) where Perikles delivered his funeral oration in 431 B.C. (It is close to the metro station.)
There is a good museum here with excellent display. This complex is huge and it can easily take 2 hours to cover the ground and the museum, better time yourself if you wish to visit this place.
Excellent and Excellent and Excellent !! I have a request to you, Please upload more photos
Beautiful photography.
Excellent photos with detailed description.
Awesome Indrani!!
Wow!!! Ancient and mysterious pictures…:)
Excellent photos
Amazing, I too get so awe struck when I read BC and think of the time …
Wow! That's quite interesting to know about Agoras… Wonderful photographs!
Thank you Indrani for taking us to Greece virtually .
Have always been fascinated by Greece and its culture. Its majestic yet so poetic. Lovely pictures!
Excellent.. Thanks ..You saved me a good amount of money.. Sitting at the comfort of my desk, I could travel and see all these gorgeous structures..!
Hello Indrani !!!
Gorgeous pictures of this historical place!Amazing captures indeed!!Thank you for sharing!
Have a great weekend!
Dimi…
Hello Indrani, lovely tour and images.. I would love to explore this place! Have a happy weekend!
Reminds me of the movie "my life in ruins". Beutiful 🙂
Brilliant capture with the ancient monuments! Great exposure and light in the images… Well preserved sites at their natural states.
Beautiful even in the ruins! Lovely shots!
Blue skies and fabulous old historical buildings – it doesn't get much better than this!
Brilliant photos.
I just love reading about history. I have a cousin that lives in thessaloniki, can't wait to visit there one day.
Amazing & astounding images that transport you back into history.
It's amazing that something so ancient can still exist, much to our great joy. Your photos are wonderful and the tour so interesting. Thank you Indrani.
It's amazing to me that the Agora still exits, that nothing newer has been built over it.
Thank you as always for the memories!! I do love Greece and these incredible sites!! The best trip I've ever had — the real one and the trips through your photos!!
Its a wonder that those massive pillars are still standing.
Like you said, the very act of stepping on these sites makes you feel that you are "there"
just amazing – yes, and ancient!!