Ancient Greek Sites
Temple of Aphrodite
Temple of Aphrodite dates back to the 3rd century BCE, and was built to honor Aphrodite, the mythological Greek goddess of love and beauty. The temple is located in Symi Square, close to the Eleftheria Gate. The once majestic structure is now a pile of ruins surrounded by a small fence. Although you cannot walk through the temple grounds, you can get close enough to study some of the old building blocks and fallen column ...
Founded: 3rd century BCE |
Location:
Rhodes, Greece
Temple of Apollo
The Temple of Apollo is one of the most important ancient Greek monuments in Syracuse. It is dated to the beginning of the 6th century B.C. and is therefore the most ancient Doric temple in Sicily and more or less, the first which corresponds to the model of the temple surrounded by a peripteros of stone columns that became standard in the whole Greek world. The temple underwent several transformations: closed during the ...
Founded: 6th century BCE |
Location:
Syracuse, Italy
Kerameikos
Kerameikos was the potters" quarter of the city, from which the English word 'ceramic' is derived, and was also the site of an important cemetery and numerous funerary sculptures erected along the road out of the city towards Eleusis. The earliest tombs at the Kerameikos date from the Early Bronze Age (2700-2000 BC), and the cemetery appears to have continuously expanded from the sub-Mycenaean period (110 ...
Founded: 2700 BCE |
Location:
Athens, Greece
Segesta Temple
Segesta was one of the major cities of the Elymians, one of the three indigenous peoples of Sicily. The hellenization of Segesta happened very early and had a profound effect on its people. On a hill just outside the site of the ancient city of Segesta lies an unusually well preserved Doric temple. It is thought to have been built in the 420s BC by an Athenian architect, despite the city not having a large Greek populati ...
Founded: 420 BCE |
Location:
Calatafimi-Segesta, Italy
Greek Theatre of Ohrid
The Ancient theatre of Ohrid from the Hellenistic period was built in 200 BC and is the only Hellenistic-type theatre in the North Macedonia. It is unclear how many people the original theater used to seat, as only the lower section still exists. The open theater has a perfect location: the two hills that surround it keep it protected from winds that could interfere with acoustics during performances. During Roman times, ...
Founded: 200 BCE |
Location:
Ohrid, North Macedonia
Altar of Hieron
The Altar of Hieron is a monumental grand altar in the ancient quarter of Neapolis in Syracuse. It was built in the Hellenistic period by King Hiero II and is the largest altar known from antiquity. The structure is aligned roughly north-north-west to south-east-east, and is located in the Neapolis. Almost nothing except the foundations of the structure survive today. The structure was partly built from masonry blocks an ...
Founded: 3rd century BCE |
Location:
Syracuse, Italy
Philopappos Monument
The Philopappos Monument is an ancient Greek mausoleum and monument dedicated to Gaius Julius Antiochus Epiphanes Philopappos or Philopappus, (65–116 AD), a prince from the Kingdom of Commagene. It is located on Mouseion Hill in Athens, southwest of the Acropolis. The monument was built on the same site where Musaios or Musaeus, a 6th-century BC priestly poet and mystical seer, was held to have been buried ...
Founded: c. 116 AD |
Location:
Athens, Greece
Ancient Theatre of Lindos
The ancient theatre of Lindos lies at the foot of the west slope of the rock of the Lindos acropolis. It had 19 rows of seats, most of them carved into the rock although somewere built, as were the endmost cunei and the side retaining walls, which do not survive. Today only the rock-carved sections are preserved: the circular orchestra, the three central cunei of the lower cavea and parts of the two neighbouring ones, ...
Founded: 4th century BCE |
Location:
Lindos, Greece
Segesta Greek Theatre
Built in the 3rd century BCE in the Hellenistic period but under Roman domination, the Segesta Greek Theatre comprises a perfect, vast semicircle 63 metres in diameter situated on a rocky slope: the steps face towards the hills behind which, to the right, the gulf of Castellammare can be discerned. Every year, in summer, the theatre comes to life and fills with spectators ready to enjoy, in a timeless moment, the tragedie ...
Founded: 3rd century BCE |
Location:
Calatafimi-Segesta, Italy
Valley of the Temples
The Sicilian town of Agrigento was an important Greek colony in the 6th century BC and today it has some of the best preserved Greek remains outside of Greece itself. The Valley of the Temples (Valle dei Templi) contains a number of ruined temples in a spectacular countryside setting. Temple of Concordia Due to its good state of preservation, the Temple of Concordia is ranked amongst the most notable edifices of the Gre ...
Founded: 500 BCE |
Location:
Provincia di Agrigento, Italy
Butrint
Butrint, located in the south of Albania approximately 20km from the modern city of Saranda, has a special atmosphere created by a combination of archaeology, monuments and nature in the Mediterranean. With its hinterland it constitutes an exceptional cultural landscape, which has developed organically over many centuries. Butrint has escaped aggressive development of the type that has reduced the heritage value of most h ...
Founded: 800 BCE |
Location:
Sarandë, Albania
Berat
Located in central Albania, Berat bears witness to the coexistence of various religious and cultural communities down the centuries. It features a castle, locally known as the Kala, most of which was built in the 13th century, although its origins date back to the 4th century BC. The citadel area numbers many Byzantine churches, mainly from the 13th century, as well as several mosques built under the Ottoman era which beg ...
Founded: c. 314 BCE |
Location:
Berat, Albania
Camirus
The ancient city of Camirus was built on three levels. At the top of the hill was the acropolis, with the temple complex of Athena Kameiras and the stoa. A covered reservoir having a capacity of 600 cubic meters of water (enough for up to 400 families) was constructed about the sixth century BC. Later, the stoa was built over the reservoir. The stoa consisted of two rows of Doric columns with rooms for shops or lodgings i ...
Founded: 6th century BCE |
Location:
Kameiros, Greece
Pnyx
The Pnyx is a hill in central Athens. Beginning as early as 507 BC, the Athenians gathered on the Pnyx to host their popular assemblies, thus making the hill one of the earliest and most important sites in the creation of democracy. Pnyx is a small, rocky hill surrounded by parkland, with a large flat platform of eroded stone set into its side, and by steps carved on its slope. It was the meeting place of one of the ...
Founded: 570 BCE |
Location:
Athens, Greece
Acropolis of Rhodes
The Acropolis of Rhodes dates from the Classical Greek period (5th–3rd century BC) and is located approximately 3 kilometers from the centre of the city of Rhodes. The partially reconstructed part of the site consists of the Temple of Apollo (also, as alternatives Athena Polias and Zeus Polieus) below which is a stadium and a small theatre. In 408 BC, towards the end of the Peloponnesian War, three of the is ...
Founded: 408 BCE |
Location:
Rhodes, Greece
Phaistos
Phaistos is an Bronze Age archaeological site at modern Phaistos, a municipality in south central Crete. The was the second largest ancient palace in Crete. Phaistos was inhabited from about 4000 BC. The palace, dating from the Middle Bronze Age (2000 BC), was destroyed by an earthquake during the Late Bronze Age. Knossos along with other Minoan sites was destroyed at that time. The palace was rebuilt towa ...
Founded: 2000 BC |
Location:
Phaistos, Greece
Apollonia
Apollonia was an ancient Greek city located on the right bank of the Vjosë river. Apollonia was founded in 588 BCE by Greek colonists from Corfu and Corinth, on a site where native Illyrian tribes lived, and was perhaps the most important of the several classical towns known as Apollonia. Apollonia flourished under Roman rule and was noted by Cicero in his Philippicae as magna urbs et gravis, a great and important ...
Founded: 588 BCE |
Location:
Fier, Albania
Salona
Salona was an ancient city and the capital of the Roman province of Dalmatia. The first mention of the name Salon originates about 7th century BC as an Illyrian settlement. It is the largest archaeological park in Croatia, whose size is attested by the monumental ramparts with towers and gates, a forum with temples, an amphitheater and cemeteries with Salonian martyrs (Manastirine, Kapljuč, Marusinac). Salona was a town ...
Founded: 7th century BCE |
Location:
Solin, Croatia
Ialysos
The ancient city of Ialyssos extended around the hill of Filerimos, which was the ancient acropolis where there are remains of buildings from the Archaic, Byzantine and Knights" periods. The temple of Athena Polias, which dates to the 3rd-2nd centuries BCE, was built over the site of an earlier Classical temple, to judge from from the evidence of a 5th century BC floor and terra-cotta antefixes found there. The depos ...
Founded: 3rd century BCE |
Location:
Ialysos, Greece
Gortyn
Gortyn or Gortys was a city that flourished particularly during the Roman era. It was the capital of the Roman province of Crete and Cyrenaica. It had its origins in the Minoan era (around 3200 BC). The most distinctive monuments are the Praetorium, the residence of the Roman governor of the province, and the Nymphaion (both dating from 2nd century AD), where the Nymphs were worshipped. There is also a temple of Pythian ...
Founded: 3200 BC |
Location:
Górtyn, Greece