Kerameikos
Athens has been burying its dead here since the 3rd millennium BC — and the potters next door gave us the word "ceramic."
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This northwest-of-the-Acropolis site layers a working potters' quarter, a cemetery active since 1200 BC, and the spot where Pericles delivered his famous funeral oration in 431 BC. The Sacred Way to Eleusis — route of the Eleusinian Mysteries procession — started right here.
What to look for
- Funerary sculptures lining the Sacred Way along the south bank of the Eridanos River
- The Dipylon Gate, one of two large north-facing gates built into the city wall raised after the Persian sack in 480 BC
- Cist graves and burial offerings from the organized cemetery period beginning around 1200 BC
Located northwest of the Acropolis, on both sides of the ancient Dipylon Gate and along the Eridanos River; excavations cover only a portion of the ancient demos.
Kerameikos 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.
- ErechtheionThe one Greek temple that broke every rule of classical architecture — and scholars still can't agree on what it was actually called.