At a glance
🎟️ 20€
Reduced €10. Free for EU citizens under 25.
🕗 From 8:00
Until 20:00 in summer, until 15:00 in winter.
🚇 Akropoli
Line 2. From the station, 7 minutes on foot.
⏱️ 30–45 minutes
For the temple, the fallen column and the Arch from outside.
A temple that took 650 years
The Olympieion was started in the Athens of the tyrants and finished in the Athens of the Romans. Its story fits into four milestones:
- Around 515 BC. The Peisistratids begin a huge temple for Zeus. When the tyranny falls, the work stops.
- 174 BC. King Antiochus IV Epiphanes of Syria takes it up again, now in the Corinthian order, with the Roman architect Cossutius. He dies, and the temple is left half-built once more.
- 86 BC. Sulla captures Athens and, according to Pliny, takes columns to adorn the temple of Jupiter on the Capitoline Hill in Rome.
- AD 131/132. Hadrian finishes the temple and dedicates it. Inside he set up a chryselephantine statue of Zeus and, as Pausanias writes, statues of the emperor himself.
In the centuries that followed, the temple became a quarry. In 1759 the Ottoman governor of the city burned one column to make lime for his mosque in Monastiraki.
William Pars painted Athens before yet another column was lost.
Bottom left the Arch, in the middle the columns. This is how you grasp the size of the temple.
Painting: William Pars, 1765 (public domain) · Photo: MM (public domain) · Wikimedia Commons
The numbers
104 columns
That’s how many the temple had: two rows on the long sides and three on the short ones.
15 + 1
Fifteen columns stand today. One more has lain on the ground since 1852.
16.89 m
The height of each shaft, with a diameter of almost two metres at the base.
108 × 41 m
Roughly the size of the temple. Noticeably bigger than the Parthenon.
What you see today
The site is a large open field. You enter from Vasilissis Olgas Avenue and walk towards the south-east corner, where the group of thirteen columns stands. Some still carry pieces of the architrave. Further west stand two more columns, on their own. Stand at the foot of a column and look up: the capitals with their acanthus leaves are almost 17 metres above you.
The south-east corner of the temple. A piece of the architrave survives here too.
From the south side, the city’s two hills fit into the same frame.
Acanthus leaves, almost 17 metres above your head.
A big open space, with a little shade only under the trees.
Photos: Jebulon (CC0), elveoflight (CC BY-SA 3.0), Julian Lupyan (CC0), Rakoon (CC0) · Wikimedia Commons
The fallen column
In 1852 a storm brought down one of the columns. It was never put back up, and today it’s perhaps the most interesting part of the site. The drums lie in a row, one next to the other, just as they fell. So you can see how every column was built: from marble discs stacked one on top of the other, with no mortar.
It fell in a storm in 1852 and was left as it was.
Every column was made of pieces, like a stack of giant discs.
A little beyond the group stand two more. Between them, the fallen one.
The American painter Frederic Church drew the column 17 years after it fell.
Photos: Carole Raddato (CC BY-SA 2.0), George E. Koronaios (CC BY-SA 4.0), Jebulon (CC0), Frederic Edwin Church (public domain) · Wikimedia Commons
Take a walk round the north side too. Pieces of the ancient city wall survive there, along with Roman baths and a stretch of ancient road. Few visitors get that far, so it’s also the quietest spot.
On the north side, pieces of the 5th-century BC city wall.
A road that led out of the city towards the Ilissos river.
Photos: George E. Koronaios (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Wikimedia Commons
Hadrian’s Arch and its two inscriptions
The Arch stands on Amalias Avenue, outside the fence, and you can see it freely without a ticket. The Athenians put it up in Hadrian’s honour around AD 131, in marble from Mount Penteli. It’s about 18 metres high. Below is a Roman arch, and above it an upper storey with columns, like a Greek gateway.
On the architrave above the arch there is one inscription on each side. Stand first on the Acropolis side, then cross to the Olympieion side:
«Αἵδ᾽ εἴσ᾽ Ἀθῆναι, Θησέως ἡ πρὶν πόλις.»The side facing the Acropolis: “This is Athens, the former city of Theseus.”
«Αἵδ᾽ εἴσ᾽ Ἁδριανοῦ καὶ οὐχὶ Θησέως πόλις.»The side facing the Olympieion: “This is the city of Hadrian and not of Theseus.”
In two phrases the Arch told you where old Athens ended and where Hadrian’s new district began.
Marble from Mount Penteli, about 18 metres high. It stands right on the pavement.
From the Olympieion side, the arch frames the Acropolis.
The Arch is next to the pedestrian crossing. No ticket needed.
After sunset both the Arch and the Acropolis are lit up.
Photos: ApostleKtenas (CC BY-SA 4.0), Sharon Mollerus (CC BY 2.0), Carole Raddato (CC BY-SA 2.0), George E. Koronaios (CC BY-SA 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 €20 and the reduced one €10. 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. You’ll find the free days in our calendar of free museum days. If you’re planning to see several sites, read our guide to the combined ticket.
💡 Is it worth €20?
You can see the columns well from outside too, from Vasilissis Olgas Avenue and from the Arch. Inside, though, you stand under the columns, see the fallen column up close and get the photo with the Acropolis behind. If you’re short on time or money, the Arch and the view from the pavement are enough. If you happen to be here on a free day, go in without a second thought.
The best photos
- Through the arch of the Gate. From the Olympieion side, the opening frames the Acropolis.
- From the south-east corner. All thirteen columns together, with the Acropolis behind them.
- Low down, at the fallen column. Crouch and shoot it along its full length. The drums fading into the distance show the scale.
- In the afternoon. When the sun drops, the marble takes on a warm colour. In winter, though, the site closes at 15:00.
There’s almost no shade. In summer bring water and a hat, and if you can, come at 8:00.
🚇 How to get there from Ioulianou 50
One change, at Omonia. Allow about 25 minutes door to door.
- Ioulianou 50 → Victoria station: 3 minutes on foot.
- Line 1 (green), towards Piraeus: one stop, to Omonia.
- Line 2 (red), towards Elliniko: three stops, Panepistimio, Syntagma, Akropoli.
- Akropoli → Olympieion: come out on Makrygianni Street and walk east to Amalias Avenue. You pass Hadrian’s Arch and turn into Vasilissis Olgas Avenue. The entrance is a few metres along.
Or get off one stop earlier, at Syntagma, and walk 10 minutes south along Amalias Avenue, next to the National Garden. That way you reach the Arch first.
🚇 Ioulianou 50 → Olympieion by metro
Line 1 to Omonia, Line 2 to Akropoli, and 7 minutes on foot, passing under Hadrian’s Arch.
🗺️ From Akropoli station to the Olympieion and on to the Kallimarmaro
The orange line is the way from the station to the entrance, past Hadrian’s Arch. The purple one is the walk afterwards, to the Zappeion and the Kallimarmaro, about 15 minutes. Tap each number to see what it is.
Where it is in relation to the apartment
📍 From Angels Athens to the “Olympieion · Hadrian’s Arch”
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
When you come out, carry on east along Vasilissis Olgas Avenue. In five minutes you’re at the Zappeion, with its garden and a café in the shade. From there the National Garden climbs up to Syntagma. Across from the Zappeion, on Vasileos Konstantinou Avenue, is the Panathenaic Stadium (Kallimarmaro), the marble stadium of the first modern Olympic Games. If you’d rather see something older, Plaka and the Acropolis Museum are ten minutes west.
Five minutes east. Its garden opens early and closes late.
Shade and benches, from the Zappeion up to Syntagma.
Across from the Zappeion. The 1896 Olympic Games were held here.
Photos: Jebulon (CC0), Jakub Hałun (CC BY 4.0) and Angels Athens archive · Wikimedia Commons
Frequently asked questions
Do you need a ticket for Hadrian’s Arch?
No. The Arch stands on the pavement of Amalias Avenue and you can see it freely, day and night. Only the temple site needs a ticket.
Can you see the temple without going in?
Yes, the columns rise above the fence and you can see them from Vasilissis Olgas Avenue and from Amalias Avenue. Inside you get the scale, the fallen column up close and the view towards the Acropolis.
What happened to the statue of Zeus?
It was lost. Pausanias describes a chryselephantine statue of Zeus inside the temple, but no piece of it has been identified with certainty.
Is the site accessible?
The field is almost flat, with dirt and gravel paths. In a wheelchair you can get around on the main paths, but it’s best to ask at the entrance. The Arch is right on the pavement.
— Kathy
