{ "api_version": "1.0.0", "generated_at": "2026-10-01T14:29:21.571Z", "documentation": "https://badhistorian.com/docs/api/", "license": "https://badhistorian.com/terms", "slug": "athens", "name": "Athens", "country": "Greece", "tagline": "Nothing here was ever knocked down.", "description": "The oldest city in Europe that never stopped being lived in, and it has almost never demolished anything — it just hands things a new job and carries on. We walk you past the guidebook to what really happened; a few things are ours.", "coordinates": { "latitude": 37.9838, "longitude": 23.7275 }, "image_url": "https://euuqfgxiwmpxyscuzcqv.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/images/cities/athens.jpg", "trailer_audio_url": "https://euuqfgxiwmpxyscuzcqv.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/audio/tours/city-intros/athens-intro.mp3", "tour_count": 3, "attraction_count": 26, "url": "https://badhistorian.com/walking-tours/athens/", "api_url": "https://badhistorian.com/api/cities/athens.json", "tours": [ { "slug": "acropolis", "title": "Athens in One Morning", "subtitle": null, "city": { "slug": "athens", "name": "Athens", "country": "Greece" }, "description": "Everybody who ever came through Athens tried to put their name on it. This is the first-timer's walk, from Syntagma Square to the marble Panathenaic Stadium, told through the people the guidebook leaves out: the teenage Bavarian king who lost a country in the square outside his own window, a refugee who renamed himself and brought souvlaki back to Monastiraki, a hundred and ninety ballots found at the bottom of a well with the same name on every one, a Swedish writer who watched the Parthenon blow up and carried a book home from the ruins, the hermits who lived on top of the Temple of Olympian Zeus, and a water carrier who won the first Olympic marathon and asked the King for a cart. Ten stops, about four kilometers, twenty-five centuries. Nearly all of it is true. Five things are mine. The Parthenon stop plays on the Acropolis itself, so bring a ticket if you're going up.", "neighborhood": "Acropolis", "tour_type": "Highlights Tour", "tags": [], "duration_minutes": 90, "stop_count": null, "price_usd": 9.99, "currency": "USD", "is_free_preview": false, "cover_image_url": "https://euuqfgxiwmpxyscuzcqv.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/images/tours/athens/acropolis/cover.jpg", "trailer_audio_url": null, "url": "https://badhistorian.com/walking-tours/athens/acropolis/", "api_url": "https://badhistorian.com/api/tours/athens/acropolis.json" }, { "slug": "parthenon", "title": "Fingerprints on the Parthenon", "subtitle": null, "city": { "slug": "athens", "name": "Athens", "country": "Greece" }, "description": "Everyone who got their hands on the Acropolis left a mark you can still find. This walk climbs from Dimitris Pikionis's path, paved with the wreckage of demolished Athens, past the Odeon built for a wife whose husband stood trial for her death, through a gate that was never finished, to the Parthenon itself: the sculptor who was tried for putting his own face on the goddess's shield, the engineer whose iron clamps are slowly splitting the marble, and the hole in the Erechtheion's roof left open for a god. It ends where two teenagers took down the swastika in 1941, and in the theater where Socrates stood up in the audience to be laughed at. Eight stops, one hill. Most of this walk is inside the Acropolis site, so you'll need a ticket. Nearly all of it is true. Four things are mine.", "neighborhood": "Acropolis", "tour_type": "Architecture Tour", "tags": [], "duration_minutes": 75, "stop_count": null, "price_usd": 9.99, "currency": "USD", "is_free_preview": false, "cover_image_url": "https://euuqfgxiwmpxyscuzcqv.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/images/tours/athens/parthenon/cover.jpg", "trailer_audio_url": null, "url": "https://badhistorian.com/walking-tours/athens/parthenon/", "api_url": "https://badhistorian.com/api/tours/athens/parthenon.json" }, { "slug": "anafiotika", "title": "The Village That Appeared Overnight", "subtitle": null, "city": { "slug": "athens", "name": "Athens", "country": "Greece" }, "description": "Almost nothing in Plaka is doing the job it was built for. This walk starts at a chapel with a hotel standing on stilts over it, where, the story goes, a man made the Ottoman army's gunpowder by day and the rebels' by night, and a woman smuggled it out under the dirty laundry. It passes a church with a calendar of pagan holidays over its door, a governor who blew up an ancient column to make plaster, an emperor's olive-oil law that paid informers half, a clock from before Christ with a backup clock inside it, and the house below the Acropolis where a Berlin architect wanted to put the king's palace on top of the rock. It ends in Anafiotika, the island village stonemasons built overnight under the Acropolis, legally, because of a rule about roofs. Nine stops. Nearly all of it is true. Five things are mine.", "neighborhood": "Plaka", "tour_type": "Neighborhood Tour", "tags": [], "duration_minutes": 75, "stop_count": null, "price_usd": 9.99, "currency": "USD", "is_free_preview": false, "cover_image_url": "https://euuqfgxiwmpxyscuzcqv.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/images/tours/athens/anafiotika/cover.jpg", "trailer_audio_url": null, "url": "https://badhistorian.com/walking-tours/athens/anafiotika/", "api_url": "https://badhistorian.com/api/tours/athens/anafiotika.json" } ], "attractions": [ { "slug": "anafiotika", "name": "Anafiotika", "city": { "slug": "athens", "name": "Athens", "country": "Greece" }, "category": "landmark", "short_blurb": "This is Anafiotika, and you've just walked out of Athens and onto a Greek island. Whitewashed cube houses with flat roofs, blue doors and shutters, pots of geraniums and basil on every step, lanes so narrow two people have to turn sideways…", "description": "This is Anafiotika, and you've just walked out of Athens and onto a Greek island. Whitewashed cube houses with flat roofs, blue doors and shutters, pots of geraniums and basil on every step, lanes so narrow two people have to turn sideways to pass. Cats asleep along the tops of the walls. And right behind the top row of houses, the rock of the Acropolis goes straight up.", "coordinates": { "latitude": 37.9726, "longitude": 23.7266 }, "image_url": "https://euuqfgxiwmpxyscuzcqv.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/images/tours/athens/anafiotika/stops/10_anafiotika.jpg", "is_free": false, "is_featured": false, "url": "https://badhistorian.com/stories/athens/anafiotika/" }, { "slug": "hadrians-library", "name": "Hadrian's Library", "city": { "slug": "athens", "name": "Athens", "country": "Greece" }, "category": "landmark", "short_blurb": "That long grey wall with the row of tall columns standing in front of it is the outside of Hadrian's Library. Count them — seven left of the original fourteen, standing clear of the wall with nothing on top.", "description": "That long grey wall with the row of tall columns standing in front of it is the outside of Hadrian's Library. Count them — seven left of the original fourteen, standing clear of the wall with nothing on top. The marble is green-veined and had to be shipped in from an island. Behind that wall is a rectangle of open ground about the size of a football pitch.", "coordinates": { "latitude": 37.9757, "longitude": 23.7261 }, "image_url": "https://euuqfgxiwmpxyscuzcqv.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/images/tours/athens/anafiotika/stops/5_hadrians-library.jpg", "is_free": false, "is_featured": false, "url": "https://badhistorian.com/stories/athens/hadrians-library/" }, { "slug": "mnesikleous-street-plaka", "name": "Mnesikleous Street, Plaka", "city": { "slug": "athens", "name": "Athens", "country": "Greece" }, "category": "landmark", "short_blurb": "This is Mnesikleous Street, the stepped lane where the cafés set their tables right on the stairs, under bougainvillea, with the wall of the Acropolis rising above.", "description": "This is Mnesikleous Street, the stepped lane where the cafés set their tables right on the stairs, under bougainvillea, with the wall of the Acropolis rising above. It's one of the most photographed corners of Athens, and it looks as though it has been exactly like this forever. It has been like this for about forty years. Plaka is the one part of central Athens that kept its old shape.", "coordinates": { "latitude": 37.9729, "longitude": 23.7278 }, "image_url": "https://euuqfgxiwmpxyscuzcqv.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/images/tours/athens/anafiotika/stops/9_mnesikleous-street-plaka.jpg", "is_free": false, "is_featured": false, "url": "https://badhistorian.com/stories/athens/mnesikleous-street-plaka/" }, { "slug": "monastiraki-square", "name": "Monastiraki Square", "city": { "slug": "athens", "name": "Athens", "country": "Greece" }, "category": "landmark", "short_blurb": "This is Monastiraki Square, and you can probably smell it before you've taken it in.", "description": "This is Monastiraki Square, and you can probably smell it before you've taken it in. Pork turning on vertical spits, onions, pita charring on a grill, all of it coming off the row of souvlaki shops where Mitropoleos Street runs into the square. Find that corner. It's where this story ends up. Souvlaki feels like the oldest food in Greece, and in one sense it is.", "coordinates": { "latitude": 37.976, "longitude": 23.7255 }, "image_url": "https://euuqfgxiwmpxyscuzcqv.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/images/tours/athens/acropolis/stops/2_monastiraki-square.jpg", "is_free": false, "is_featured": false, "url": "https://badhistorian.com/stories/athens/monastiraki-square/" }, { "slug": "syntagma-square-parliament-and-the-evzones", "name": "Syntagma Square, Parliament and the Evzones", "city": { "slug": "athens", "name": "Athens", "country": "Greece" }, "category": "landmark", "short_blurb": "This is Syntagma Square, and the big cream-colored building at the top of it is the Greek Parliament.", "description": "This is Syntagma Square, and the big cream-colored building at the top of it is the Greek Parliament. The two soldiers standing dead still in front, in white pleated skirts and shoes with pom-poms on the toes, are the Evzones, the presidential guard. Keep half an eye on them. The man this building was made for ends his story dressed exactly like them.", "coordinates": { "latitude": 37.9753, "longitude": 23.7358 }, "image_url": "https://euuqfgxiwmpxyscuzcqv.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/images/tours/athens/acropolis/stops/1_syntagma-square-parliament-and-the-evzones.jpg", "is_free": false, "is_featured": false, "url": "https://badhistorian.com/stories/athens/syntagma-square-parliament-and-the-evzones/" }, { "slug": "the-acropolis-museum", "name": "The Acropolis Museum", "city": { "slug": "athens", "name": "Athens", "country": "Greece" }, "category": "museum", "short_blurb": "That long building of glass and concrete is the Acropolis Museum, and its top floor is sitting crooked.", "description": "That long building of glass and concrete is the Acropolis Museum, and its top floor is sitting crooked. Everything underneath lines up with the street, but the glass box on top is turned at an angle, as though somebody set it down in a hurry. It's turned twenty-three degrees so that it lines up exactly with the Parthenon on the rock above. The top of this building is pointing at it.", "coordinates": { "latitude": 37.9683, "longitude": 23.7285 }, "image_url": "https://euuqfgxiwmpxyscuzcqv.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/images/tours/athens/acropolis/stops/6_the-acropolis-museum.jpg", "is_free": false, "is_featured": false, "url": "https://badhistorian.com/stories/athens/the-acropolis-museum/" }, { "slug": "the-ancient-agora", "name": "The Ancient Agora", "city": { "slug": "athens", "name": "Athens", "country": "Greece" }, "category": "landmark", "short_blurb": "Below you, past the railings, is the Ancient Agora, the square where Athens ran its daily business, and most of it is ankle-high: foundations, stubs of walls, outlines of rooms in the grass.", "description": "Below you, past the railings, is the Ancient Agora, the square where Athens ran its daily business, and most of it is ankle-high: foundations, stubs of walls, outlines of rooms in the grass. The long two-story building with the colonnade is the exception. It looks new because it nearly is.", "coordinates": { "latitude": 37.975163, "longitude": 23.724203 }, "image_url": "https://euuqfgxiwmpxyscuzcqv.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/images/tours/athens/acropolis/stops/stop_3_ancient_agora.jpg", "is_free": false, "is_featured": false, "url": "https://badhistorian.com/stories/athens/the-ancient-agora/" }, { "slug": "the-arch-of-hadrian", "name": "The Arch of Hadrian", "city": { "slug": "athens", "name": "Athens", "country": "Greece" }, "category": "landmark", "short_blurb": "The tall marble gateway standing by itself beside the avenue is the Arch of Hadrian. It's a gate with no wall, with nothing on either side of it but traffic and air.", "description": "The tall marble gateway standing by itself beside the avenue is the Arch of Hadrian. It's a gate with no wall, with nothing on either side of it but traffic and air. Above the opening, on both faces, a line of Greek letters runs across the stone. Those two lines are the reason to stop, because this arch argues with itself.", "coordinates": { "latitude": 37.970167, "longitude": 23.73204 }, "image_url": "https://euuqfgxiwmpxyscuzcqv.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/images/tours/athens/acropolis/stops/8_the-arch-of-hadrian.jpg", "is_free": false, "is_featured": false, "url": "https://badhistorian.com/stories/athens/the-arch-of-hadrian/" }, { "slug": "the-areopagus", "name": "The Areopagus", "city": { "slug": "athens", "name": "Athens", "country": "Greece" }, "category": "landmark", "short_blurb": "The bare, shiny hump of rock just below the entrance to the Acropolis is the Areopagus, the Hill of Ares, and the stone is a lot slicker than it looks.", "description": "The bare, shiny hump of rock just below the entrance to the Acropolis is the Areopagus, the Hill of Ares, and the stone is a lot slicker than it looks. Twenty-five centuries of feet have buffed the limestone close to glass, which is why there's a metal staircase bolted to the side. At the foot of the rock there's a big bronze plaque covered in Greek lettering.", "coordinates": { "latitude": 37.9724, "longitude": 23.7237 }, "image_url": "https://euuqfgxiwmpxyscuzcqv.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/images/tours/athens/acropolis/stops/4_the-areopagus.jpg", "is_free": false, "is_featured": false, "url": "https://badhistorian.com/stories/athens/the-areopagus/" }, { "slug": "the-belvedere-and-the-flagpole", "name": "The Belvedere and the Flagpole", "city": { "slug": "athens", "name": "Athens", "country": "Greece" }, "category": "landmark", "short_blurb": "Out at the far eastern tip of the rock there's a viewing platform with a big Greek flag on a tall pole and the whole city spread out below it.", "description": "Out at the far eastern tip of the rock there's a viewing platform with a big Greek flag on a tall pole and the whole city spread out below it. That flagpole is where, on the twenty-seventh of April, nineteen forty-one, German soldiers raised the swastika over Athens. Greece had fought off an Italian invasion for months, until the German army came south and broke through.", "coordinates": { "latitude": 37.97188, "longitude": 23.727964 }, "image_url": "https://euuqfgxiwmpxyscuzcqv.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/images/tours/athens/parthenon/stops/7_the-belvedere-and-the-flagpole.jpg", "is_free": false, "is_featured": false, "url": "https://badhistorian.com/stories/athens/the-belvedere-and-the-flagpole/" }, { "slug": "the-cathedral-and-the-little-metropolis", "name": "The Cathedral and the Little Metropolis", "city": { "slug": "athens", "name": "Athens", "country": "Greece" }, "category": "landmark", "short_blurb": "There are two churches in front of you, and you want the small one. The big pale cathedral is the Metropolis, the main cathedral of Athens.", "description": "There are two churches in front of you, and you want the small one. The big pale cathedral is the Metropolis, the main cathedral of Athens. The little stone church crouching beside it is the Little Metropolis, and if you get close you'll see that its walls are covered in carvings that don't match. Lions, eagles, crosses, wreaths, a sphinx, panels lifted off Roman tombs.", "coordinates": { "latitude": 37.9746, "longitude": 23.7304 }, "image_url": "https://euuqfgxiwmpxyscuzcqv.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/images/tours/athens/anafiotika/stops/2_the-cathedral-and-the-little-metropolis.jpg", "is_free": false, "is_featured": false, "url": "https://badhistorian.com/stories/athens/the-cathedral-and-the-little-metropolis/" }, { "slug": "the-church-of-agia-dynami", "name": "The Church of Agia Dynami", "city": { "slug": "athens", "name": "Athens", "country": "Greece" }, "category": "landmark", "short_blurb": "This is the church of Agia Dynami, and it's easy to walk straight past, because there's a hotel standing on top of it. Find the little domed chapel tucked under the overhang, between two big square pillars.", "description": "This is the church of Agia Dynami, and it's easy to walk straight past, because there's a hotel standing on top of it. Find the little domed chapel tucked under the overhang, between two big square pillars. The whole building above is resting on those pillars. The church sits in the gap underneath, like a parcel somebody left on a doorstep and then built a house around.", "coordinates": { "latitude": 37.9757, "longitude": 23.7323 }, "image_url": "https://euuqfgxiwmpxyscuzcqv.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/images/tours/athens/anafiotika/stops/1_the-church-of-agia-dynami.jpg", "is_free": false, "is_featured": false, "url": "https://badhistorian.com/stories/athens/the-church-of-agia-dynami/" }, { "slug": "the-church-of-kapnikarea", "name": "The Church of Kapnikarea", "city": { "slug": "athens", "name": "Athens", "country": "Greece" }, "category": "landmark", "short_blurb": "That small domed church sitting in the middle of Ermou Street is Kapnikarea, and the street splits and goes around it on both sides.", "description": "That small domed church sitting in the middle of Ermou Street is Kapnikarea, and the street splits and goes around it on both sides. Look along its sides and you can see the seams, because it's really three buildings stitched together: the domed main church in the middle, a separate little chapel stuck onto the north side, and a porch added across the front later still. Look at the ground, too.", "coordinates": { "latitude": 37.9765, "longitude": 23.7295 }, "image_url": "https://euuqfgxiwmpxyscuzcqv.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/images/tours/athens/anafiotika/stops/3_the-church-of-kapnikarea.jpg", "is_free": false, "is_featured": false, "url": "https://badhistorian.com/stories/athens/the-church-of-kapnikarea/" }, { "slug": "the-erechtheion", "name": "The Erechtheion", "city": { "slug": "athens", "name": "Athens", "country": "Greece" }, "category": "landmark", "short_blurb": "The smaller, oddly shaped temple on the north side of the rock, with a porch of six stone women holding up its roof, is the Erechtheion. Those women, the Caryatids, are copies.", "description": "The smaller, oddly shaped temple on the north side of the rock, with a porch of six stone women holding up its roof, is the Erechtheion. Those women, the Caryatids, are copies. Five of the originals are in the museum down the hill, and one is in London. But the strangest thing about this building is on its far side, in the porch facing north.", "coordinates": { "latitude": 37.9721, "longitude": 23.7265 }, "image_url": "https://euuqfgxiwmpxyscuzcqv.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/images/tours/athens/parthenon/stops/5_the-erechtheion.jpg", "is_free": false, "is_featured": false, "url": "https://badhistorian.com/stories/athens/the-erechtheion/" }, { "slug": "the-gate-of-athena-archegetis", "name": "The Gate of Athena Archegetis", "city": { "slug": "athens", "name": "Athens", "country": "Greece" }, "category": "landmark", "short_blurb": "Four thick marble columns holding up a plain triangular roof, with a fenced field of ruins behind them: that's the Gate of Athena Archegetis, the front door of the Roman market of Athens.", "description": "Four thick marble columns holding up a plain triangular roof, with a fenced field of ruins behind them: that's the Gate of Athena Archegetis, the front door of the Roman market of Athens. Rome paid for it around the time of the emperor Augustus. The old Greek marketplace over the hill had filled up with so many temples and monuments that the shopping had to move here.", "coordinates": { "latitude": 37.9744, "longitude": 23.7251 }, "image_url": "https://euuqfgxiwmpxyscuzcqv.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/images/tours/athens/anafiotika/stops/6_the-gate-of-athena-archegetis.jpg", "is_free": false, "is_featured": false, "url": "https://badhistorian.com/stories/athens/the-gate-of-athena-archegetis/" }, { "slug": "the-lysicrates-monument-plaka", "name": "The Lysicrates Monument, Plaka", "city": { "slug": "athens", "name": "Athens", "country": "Greece" }, "category": "monument", "short_blurb": "The little round marble building on the square stone base is the Monument of Lysicrates.", "description": "The little round marble building on the square stone base is the Monument of Lysicrates. Get close enough to see the top of it: six slim columns, a carved band running around under the roof, a roof shaped like a cluster of leaves, and right at the peak, an empty stand. Something used to sit up there. That something is why a copy of this building is sitting on top of the Tennessee State Capitol.", "coordinates": { "latitude": 37.9709, "longitude": 23.7301 }, "image_url": "https://euuqfgxiwmpxyscuzcqv.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/images/tours/athens/acropolis/stops/7_the-lysicrates-monument-plaka.jpg", "is_free": false, "is_featured": false, "url": "https://badhistorian.com/stories/athens/the-lysicrates-monument-plaka/" }, { "slug": "the-odeon-of-herodes-atticus", "name": "The Odeon of Herodes Atticus", "city": { "slug": "athens", "name": "Athens", "country": "Greece" }, "category": "landmark", "short_blurb": "The huge curved stone wall with rows of tall arched windows, built into the slope of the Acropolis, is the Odeon of Herodes Atticus, a Roman theater nearly nineteen hundred years old. It still works.", "description": "The huge curved stone wall with rows of tall arched windows, built into the slope of the Acropolis, is the Odeon of Herodes Atticus, a Roman theater nearly nineteen hundred years old. It still works. After its stone seats were restored in the nineteen fifties, the Athens Festival moved in, and it has staged opera, ballet and concerts here most years since.", "coordinates": { "latitude": 37.9709, "longitude": 23.7245 }, "image_url": "https://euuqfgxiwmpxyscuzcqv.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/images/tours/athens/parthenon/stops/2_the-odeon-of-herodes-atticus.jpg", "is_free": false, "is_featured": false, "url": "https://badhistorian.com/stories/athens/the-odeon-of-herodes-atticus/" }, { "slug": "the-old-university", "name": "The Old University", "city": { "slug": "athens", "name": "Athens", "country": "Greece" }, "category": "landmark", "short_blurb": "The long, low house on Tholou Street, with its wooden upper floor jutting out over the lane and heavy stone walls underneath, is one of the oldest houses in Plaka.", "description": "The long, low house on Tholou Street, with its wooden upper floor jutting out over the lane and heavy stone walls underneath, is one of the oldest houses in Plaka. In eighteen thirty-seven Greece's first university opened in it, in somebody's home, with lectures in the living rooms. It moved out after a few years and grew into the largest university in Greece, and the house is its museum now.", "coordinates": { "latitude": 37.9734, "longitude": 23.7268 }, "image_url": "https://euuqfgxiwmpxyscuzcqv.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/images/tours/athens/anafiotika/stops/8_the-old-university.jpg", "is_free": false, "is_featured": false, "url": "https://badhistorian.com/stories/athens/the-old-university/" }, { "slug": "the-panathenaic-stadium", "name": "The Panathenaic Stadium", "city": { "slug": "athens", "name": "Athens", "country": "Greece" }, "category": "landmark", "short_blurb": "This is the Panathenaic Stadium, and every part of it is marble: the seats, the steps, the whole long bowl. It's the only stadium in the world built entirely that way. Look at the shape, too.", "description": "This is the Panathenaic Stadium, and every part of it is marble: the seats, the steps, the whole long bowl. It's the only stadium in the world built entirely that way. Look at the shape, too. It's a long, skinny horseshoe with a hairpin turn at the closed end, the old ancient racetrack layout, and the runners at the first modern Olympics, in eighteen ninety-six, hated those corners.", "coordinates": { "latitude": 37.9683, "longitude": 23.7411 }, "image_url": "https://euuqfgxiwmpxyscuzcqv.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/images/tours/athens/acropolis/stops/10_the-panathenaic-stadium.jpg", "is_free": false, "is_featured": false, "url": "https://badhistorian.com/stories/athens/the-panathenaic-stadium/" }, { "slug": "the-parthenon", "name": "The Parthenon", "city": { "slug": "athens", "name": "Athens", "country": "Greece" }, "category": "landmark", "short_blurb": "At this end of the Parthenon, look for the cranes, the scaffolding, and the bright white marble set in among the old honey-colored stone. That white marble is new.", "description": "At this end of the Parthenon, look for the cranes, the scaffolding, and the bright white marble set in among the old honey-colored stone. That white marble is new. It was cut in the last few decades from the same mountain the ancient builders used, and in a century or so it will have weathered to the same color as the rest. It's there because of a man named Nikolaos Balanos.", "coordinates": { "latitude": 37.97155, "longitude": 23.7271 }, "image_url": "https://euuqfgxiwmpxyscuzcqv.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/images/tours/athens/parthenon/stops/6_the-parthenon-east-end.jpg", "is_free": false, "is_featured": false, "url": "https://badhistorian.com/stories/athens/the-parthenon/" }, { "slug": "the-pikionis-paths", "name": "The Pikionis Paths", "city": { "slug": "athens", "name": "Athens", "country": "Greece" }, "category": "landmark", "short_blurb": "This winding stone path, and the little church and shelter along it, are the work of an architect named Dimitris Pikionis, and the path is worth looking down at, because almost nobody does. Look at the paving under your feet.", "description": "This winding stone path, and the little church and shelter along it, are the work of an architect named Dimitris Pikionis, and the path is worth looking down at, because almost nobody does. Look at the paving under your feet. No two stones are the same shape. Slabs of marble, rough chunks of rock, pieces of broken tile, a scrap of carved molding here and there.", "coordinates": { "latitude": 37.970061, "longitude": 23.720286 }, "image_url": "https://euuqfgxiwmpxyscuzcqv.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/images/tours/athens/parthenon/stops/1_the-pikionis-paths.jpg", "is_free": false, "is_featured": false, "url": "https://badhistorian.com/stories/athens/the-pikionis-paths/" }, { "slug": "the-propylaea-and-the-temple-of-athena-nike", "name": "The Propylaea and the Temple of Athena Nike", "city": { "slug": "athens", "name": "Athens", "country": "Greece" }, "category": "landmark", "short_blurb": "This is the Propylaea, the great marble gateway to the top of the Acropolis, and perched out on the bastion to its right is the little temple of Athena Nike. Before you go through the gate, look closely at the big blocks in its walls.", "description": "This is the Propylaea, the great marble gateway to the top of the Acropolis, and perched out on the bastion to its right is the little temple of Athena Nike. Before you go through the gate, look closely at the big blocks in its walls. Some of them still have small, square stone knobs sticking out of them. Those knobs are why this gate never got finished.", "coordinates": { "latitude": 37.9716, "longitude": 23.7251 }, "image_url": "https://euuqfgxiwmpxyscuzcqv.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/images/tours/athens/parthenon/stops/3_the-propylaea-and-the-temple-of-athena-nike.jpg", "is_free": false, "is_featured": false, "url": "https://badhistorian.com/stories/athens/the-propylaea-and-the-temple-of-athena-nike/" }, { "slug": "the-temple-of-olympian-zeus", "name": "The Temple of Olympian Zeus", "city": { "slug": "athens", "name": "Athens", "country": "Greece" }, "category": "landmark", "short_blurb": "Those giant columns standing in the open field are what's left of the Temple of Olympian Zeus. Fifteen are still standing out of a hundred and four, and at about fifty-five feet, they're the tallest columns on any Greek temple anywhere.", "description": "Those giant columns standing in the open field are what's left of the Temple of Olympian Zeus. Fifteen are still standing out of a hundred and four, and at about fifty-five feet, they're the tallest columns on any Greek temple anywhere. Find the big cluster where stone beams still run across the tops, joining the columns together.", "coordinates": { "latitude": 37.9693, "longitude": 23.7331 }, "image_url": "https://euuqfgxiwmpxyscuzcqv.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/images/tours/athens/acropolis/stops/9_the-temple-of-olympian-zeus.jpg", "is_free": false, "is_featured": false, "url": "https://badhistorian.com/stories/athens/the-temple-of-olympian-zeus/" }, { "slug": "the-theatre-of-dionysus", "name": "The Theatre of Dionysus", "city": { "slug": "athens", "name": "Athens", "country": "Greece" }, "category": "landmark", "short_blurb": "Below the south side of the Acropolis, the half-circle of stone seats climbing the slope is the Theatre of Dionysus. Look at the very front row.", "description": "Below the south side of the Acropolis, the half-circle of stone seats climbing the slope is the Theatre of Dionysus. Look at the very front row. Instead of plain benches there's a row of carved marble armchairs, and in the middle, the grandest of them all, a throne with lion's paws for feet.", "coordinates": { "latitude": 37.9703, "longitude": 23.7278 }, "image_url": "https://euuqfgxiwmpxyscuzcqv.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/images/tours/athens/parthenon/stops/8_the-theatre-of-dionysus.jpg", "is_free": false, "is_featured": false, "url": "https://badhistorian.com/stories/athens/the-theatre-of-dionysus/" }, { "slug": "the-tower-of-the-winds", "name": "The Tower of the Winds", "city": { "slug": "athens", "name": "Athens", "country": "Greece" }, "category": "landmark", "short_blurb": "The eight-sided marble tower is the Tower of the Winds, and it's one of the cleverest buildings in Athens. Look up near the top. Each of the eight sides has a carved winged figure flying sideways across it, and each one is a wind.", "description": "The eight-sided marble tower is the Tower of the Winds, and it's one of the cleverest buildings in Athens. Look up near the top. Each of the eight sides has a carved winged figure flying sideways across it, and each one is a wind. The north face has Boreas, an old man wrapped in a heavy cloak, blowing on a conch shell, because the north wind is cold.", "coordinates": { "latitude": 37.9745, "longitude": 23.7266 }, "image_url": "https://euuqfgxiwmpxyscuzcqv.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/images/tours/athens/anafiotika/stops/7_the-tower-of-the-winds.jpg", "is_free": false, "is_featured": false, "url": "https://badhistorian.com/stories/athens/the-tower-of-the-winds/" }, { "slug": "the-tzistarakis-mosque", "name": "The Tzistarakis Mosque", "city": { "slug": "athens", "name": "Athens", "country": "Greece" }, "category": "landmark", "short_blurb": "On the corner of Monastiraki Square, the low building with the arched porch and the small dome is a mosque, built by the Ottoman governor of Athens in seventeen fifty-nine.", "description": "On the corner of Monastiraki Square, the low building with the arched porch and the small dome is a mosque, built by the Ottoman governor of Athens in seventeen fifty-nine. Right beside it, running along the street, is a tall wall of gray stone with a row of columns standing in front of it. That's the outside of Hadrian's Library, built by the Roman emperor more than sixteen centuries earlier.", "coordinates": { "latitude": 37.9761, "longitude": 23.725 }, "image_url": "https://euuqfgxiwmpxyscuzcqv.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/images/tours/athens/anafiotika/stops/4_the-tzistarakis-mosque.jpg", "is_free": false, "is_featured": false, "url": "https://badhistorian.com/stories/athens/the-tzistarakis-mosque/" } ] }