At a glance
🎟️ 10€
With the museum. Reduced €5, free for EU citizens under 25.
🕗 From 8:00
Until 20:00 in summer, until 15:00 in winter.
🚇 Thiseio
Line 1, three stops. The entrance is 6 minutes on foot.
⏱️ 90 minutes
For the site and the museum. Two hours with a coffee at the exit.
What changed in 2026
The works ran from 2023 to 2026 and cost about €4 million from the Recovery Fund. The site was officially reopened on 15 September 2026. For visitors, three things change:
- New entrance at Ermou 148. The old temporary ticket booth from 2011 has been replaced by a visitor reception building. In the forecourt there’s a replica of the funerary shrine of Aristonautes.
- New exit on Agion Asomaton. You no longer walk back the same way. At the exit there’s a building with a café, a shop and places to rest.
- More space. A 2,700-square-metre area, closed until now, has opened, with Hellenistic and Roman fortifications, houses and workshops. More than 3,500 trees and plants were planted.
Why it’s called Kerameikos
The name comes from the kerameis, the potters. They worked the clay on the banks of the Eridanos, the little stream that still runs through the site. Their workshops produced vases that now fill museums all over the world. The same area, outside the walls, also became the place where Athenians buried their dead. So Kerameikos has a double identity: work and memory.
The city gates
- The Dipylon: the largest gate of ancient Athens. The Panathenaic Way started here, crossed the Agora and climbed to the Acropolis. The foundations of the double gate, with its courtyard and towers, can still be seen.
- The Sacred Gate: a little further south. The Sacred Way to Eleusis and the processions of the Eleusinian Mysteries left from here. The Eridanos also flowed through this gate.
- The Pompeion: between the two gates. This is where the Panathenaic procession was prepared.
The Themistoclean Wall, which runs through the site, was built in a hurry after the Persian Wars, in 478 BC. Thucydides writes that any material at hand went into it. In its lower courses you’ll see pieces of older buildings and tombs.
Ruins, greenery, and in the background the church of Agia Triada on Pireos Street.
The largest gate of ancient Athens. The road to the Acropolis started here.
Here the Eridanos stream passed under the walls, and the Sacred Way began.
The procession road to Eleusis, outside the walls.
Photos: LBM1948 (CC BY-SA 4.0), George E. Koronaios (CC0, CC BY-SA 2.0), Carole Raddato (CC BY-SA 2.0) · Wikimedia Commons
The Street of Tombs
Outside the Sacred Gate, wealthy Athenian families built grave enclosures along the road, for passers-by to see. On them they set relief stelae with figures and names, marble animals and vases. Most of what you see in place are copies. The originals are in the site museum or at the National Archaeological Museum.
The best known is the stele of Hegeso. Hegeso sits and picks a piece of jewellery from the box her servant holds out. There’s no drama, just a quiet moment at home. That’s why it moves people. A little further on, on a tall pedestal, a bull ready to charge marks the tomb of Dionysios of Kollytos.
Somewhere near the Dipylon was also the public cemetery, where the city buried its war dead. There, in 431/430 BC, Pericles gave the Funeral Oration preserved by Thucydides. We don’t know the exact spot.
Families built their grave enclosures here, along the road.
A copy in its original place. The original is in the museum.
A copy in its original place. The original is in the National Archaeological Museum.
Photos: George E. Koronaios (CC BY-SA 2.0, CC BY-SA 4.0), DerHexer (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Wikimedia Commons
The museum
The small Kerameikos museum is included in the ticket. It holds originals from several tombs: the bull of Dionysios, mourning Sirens, lekythoi, vases and grave goods from the excavations. It’s small, but worth seeing after the Street of Tombs. The objects gain context: they’re not just nice ancient things, but pieces belonging to real people.
And something you won’t expect: Kerameikos is also a garden. Tortoises live among the tombs, in spring the grass flowers, and there’s shade in plenty of spots. Don’t rush it.
The 4th-century BC original, inside the museum.
A 4th-century BC funerary statue. Sirens mourned the dead.
Tortoises roam freely among the tombs. Don’t pick them up.
Photos: Jebulon (CC0), George E. Koronaios (CC BY-SA 4.0), pavlaki1968 (CC BY 4.0) · Wikimedia Commons
Tickets and opening hours 2026
| Season | Hours |
|---|---|
| 1 April – 31 August | 8:00–20:00 |
| 1–15 September | 8:00–19:30 |
| 16–30 September | 8:00–19:00 |
| 1–15 October | 8:00–18:30 |
| 16–31 October | 8:00–18:00 |
| 1 November – 31 March | 8:00–15:00 |
The ticket costs €10 and includes the museum. The reduced one costs €5. EU citizens under 25 get in free with an ID card or passport. Last entry is 20 minutes before closing. The site is closed on 1 January, 25 March, 1 May, Easter Sunday and 25 and 26 December. The free days, such as the 1st and 3rd Sunday in winter, are in our calendar of free museum days.
🚇 How to get there from Ioulianou 50
One line, no change. Allow about 25 minutes door to door.
- Ioulianou 50 → Victoria station: 3 minutes on foot.
- Line 1 (green), towards Piraeus: Omonia, Monastiraki, and at the third stop get off at Thissio.
- Thiseio → entrance: come out onto Ermou and walk 6 minutes west, towards Gazi. The entrance is at number 148, on your left.
🚇 Ioulianou 50 → Kerameikos by metro
Line 1 to Thiseio, no change, and 6 minutes on foot along Ermou.
There’s also a station called Kerameikos, on Line 3, but it’s in Gazi, further from the entrance. From Victoria, Thiseio is simpler.
🗺️ In on Ermou, out on Agion Asomaton
Since 2026 Kerameikos has two doors: the entrance on Ermou and a new exit on Agion Asomaton, with a café. You don’t need to walk back. From the exit, the Museum of Islamic Art is across the street and Thiseio is three minutes away.
Where it is in relation to the apartment
📍 From Angels Athens to Kerameikos
See at a glance how to get there from the apartment at Ioulianou 50. Drag the map and zoom in for details.
What to combine it with
Coming out on Agion Asomaton, the Benaki Museum of Islamic Art is opposite, and a little further down is Agion Asomaton Square with its cafés. In five minutes you’re at the Ancient Agora. For a long walk, carry on along the Apostolou Pavlou pedestrian street and then Dionysiou Areopagitou, with the Acropolis on your left, as far as the Acropolis Museum.
Frequently asked questions
Is it open now?
Yes. It reopened in September 2026, after works that ran from 2023. Old guides saying it’s closed no longer apply.
Was Pericles’ Funeral Oration really given here?
Thucydides places it at the public burial of the first dead of the Peloponnesian War. The public cemetery stretched along the road that started at the Dipylon. The exact spot is not known.
How much time do I need?
An hour for the site. Ninety minutes with the museum. Two hours if you also sit at the café at the exit.
— Kathy
