Things to see in Athens

Now a jumble of monuments and ruins, in Athens' heyday, the Agora was the focus of city life, serving as a place of trade and as the city's political, administrative and cultural heart. Law courts, temples and public offices were all based in this area, where ordinary Athenians, stallholders and merchants mingled with officials, politicians and philosophers. Today, the site is dominated by the 5th-century BCE Hephaisteion (Temple of Haephaistos), one of Greece’s best-preserved ancient temples. The fascinating Museum of the Ancient Agora) contains an eccentric array of everyday artefacts found in the area. It is housed in the second-century BCE Stoa Attalou (Stoa of Attalos), which is thought to have been an early shopping arcade containing 42 separate shops.

This impressive ultra-modern glass-and-concrete structure showcases priceless ancient statues and artefacts from the Acropolis site. The star exhibit is the marble frieze that once ran around the top of the Parthenon – although almost half the pieces are in London. Greeks hope it will persuade the British Museum in London to return those pieces - the controversial Parthenon Marbles, seized by Lord Elgin in 1799.

The museum houses the vast private collection of Antonis Benakis, the son of a wealthy Greek from Alexandria, Egypt. Displayed in a neo-classical mansion, the collection traces the development of Greek art, from the Stone Age up to the 20th century, with jewellery, ceramics, paintings, sculptures, furniture and costumes laid out diachronically. Highlights include the Thessaly Treasure (a stash of second century BCE gold jewellery) and two of El Greco’s early religious-themed oil paintings.

This elegant white marble stadium was rebuilt for the first of the modern-day Olympic Games in 1896. It is a reconstruction of the ruins of a 6th-century BCE stadium that originally stood on the same site, and which was also used by the Romans. It should not be confused with the modern Olympic Stadium in the north of the city at Maroussi that formed the centre stage of the 2004 Olympics, though it was used for archery and the finish line of the Marathon.