Erechtheion
The one Greek temple that broke every rule of classical architecture — and scholars still can't agree on what it was actually called.
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Built sometime between the 430s and 406 BCE on the Acropolis's north side, this Ionic temple housed the ancient statue of Athena Polias and served a joint cult of Athena and Poseidon-Erechtheus. Its asymmetrical plan stands alone in the entire corpus of Greek temples — it simply does not conform to the classical canon, making it the architectural oddity of the Acropolis.
What to look for
- The asymmetrical layout — no two sides match, a deliberate break from every Greek temple of the period
- Ionic-order columns throughout, distinct from the Doric columns on the Parthenon directly to the south
- The multiple porches facing different directions, a physical trace of the building's unusual dual-deity function
North side of the Acropolis hill, included in the standard Acropolis combined-site ticket.
Erechtheion is one of 36 sights worth the detour in Athens, all bundled offline in Voyage GO — download the Athens pack and it sits on your map with no signal, filling your travel passport the moment you walk past.
More to see in Athens
- ParthenonA temple built to celebrate a war victory that went on to become a church, a mosque, and a gunpowder depot — blown apart in 1687 and still being reassembled.
- Acropolis of AthensA flat-topped rock 150 m above the city where Pericles spent the 5th century BC erecting the buildings that still define Athens.
- Platonic Academy (Akadimia Platonos)Aristotle studied here for twenty years before leaving to found his own school — and the word "academy" has followed ever since.
- Classical AthensDemocracy was invented here in 508 BC — and it took a bribe at Delphi to get it started.
- Olympic Stadium Athens "Spyros Louis"Santiago Calatrava's white steel roof arches over the same track where Athens opened the 2004 Olympics — and hosted three Champions League finals.
- Daphni MonasteryGold-ground mosaics survive inside an 11th-century monastery built on top of an Apollo sanctuary the Goths wrecked — and Lord Elgin took the rest.