• Acropolis - At the Acropolis, visitors will see the Parthenon, the temple atop the sacred rock dedicated to Athena, the Goddess of Wisdom; the Propylaea, the grand entrance to the sacred rock; the Temple of Wingless Victory, devoted to Athena-Nike; and the Erechtheum, the most sacred and mythical of all Athenian temples, famous for its Caryatids (female statues). Also on the site are the 5,000-seat Odeon of Herodes Atticus, carved into the rock and still used for music festivals, and the 3,000-seat Theatre of Dionysus, where Athenians once listened to the immortal works of Sophocles, Aeschylus, Euripides, and Aristophanes.

• Temple of Olympian Zeus - The Temple of Olympian Zeus is a former colossal temple at the center of Athens. It was dedicated to “Olympian” Zeus, a title derived from his position as head of the Olympian gods. Construction began in the 6th century BC under the rule of the Athenian tyrants, who envisioned building the greatest temple in the ancient world, but it was not completed until the reign of the Roman Emperor Hadrian in the 2nd century AD, some 638 years after the project began. During the Roman period, the temple, which featured 104 colossal columns, was renowned as the largest temple in Greece and housed one of the largest cult statues in the ancient world.

• Panathenaic Stadium - The Panathenaic Stadium, also known as Kallimarmaro (“beautiful marble”), is a multi-purpose stadium in Athens, Greece. It is one of the main historic attractions of the city and is the only stadium in the world built entirely of marble.

A stadium was built on the site of a simple racecourse by the Athenian statesman Lycurgus in 330 BC, primarily for the Panathenaic Games. It was rebuilt in marble by Herodes Atticus, an Athenian Roman senator, by 144 AD, with a capacity of 50,000 seats. After the rise of Christianity in the 4th century, it was largely abandoned. The stadium was excavated in 1869 and, after being refurbished, hosted the opening and closing ceremonies of the first modern Olympics in 1896 and was the venue for four of the nine contested sports. It was used for various purposes in the 20th century and was once again used as an Olympic venue in 2004. It is the finishing point for the annual Athens Classic Marathon. It is also the last venue in Greece where the Olympic flame handover ceremony to the host nation takes place.

• Hellenic Parliament - The Hellenic Parliament is the parliament of Greece, located in the Old Royal Palace overlooking Syntagma Square in Athens. It is the supreme democratic institution that represents citizens through an elected body of Members of Parliament.

• Changing of the Guard Ceremony - The Presidential Guard is a ceremonial infantry unit that guards the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and the Presidential Mansion in Athens. The unit is distinguished as the last unit of Evzones in the Hellenic Army and is closely associated with the traditional Evzone uniform, which evolved from the clothes worn by the Greeks during the Greek War of Independence. The most visible item of this uniform is the fustanella, a kilt-like garment.

• Corinth Canal - Leaving Athens, the journey continues with a 45-mile drive along the National Highway, arriving at the well-known Corinthian Canal, also called the Isthmus Canal, which connects the Saronic Sea and the Corinthian Sea. Although executed in the late 19th century, the canal was a 2,000-year-old dream. Before its construction, ships in the Aegean Sea that wanted to cross to the Adriatic or anchor in Corinth, a rich shipping city, had to circle the Peloponnese, prolonging their journey by an extra 185 nautical miles.

It is believed that Periander, the tyrant of Corinth (602 BC), was the first to conceive of the idea of digging the Corinth Canal. As the project was too complicated given the limited technical capabilities of the times, Periander constructed the diolkos, a stone road that allowed ships to be transferred on wheeled platforms. In 67 AD, Emperor Nero attempted the construction of the canal with a group of 6,000 slaves, but he was murdered before the plans were finalized. Finally, the construction of the canal came to an end in the last decade of the 19th century.

• Ancient Corinth (Archaia Korinthos) - According to myth, the first kings of Corinth were descendants of Sisyphus, the man who was punished by the Gods for his hubris by being forced to roll an immense boulder up a hill only for it to roll down again as he neared the top, repeating this action for eternity.

Thanks to traffic and trade over the Isthmus, the narrow strip of land that connects the Peloponnese to the mainland of Greece and Attica, this ancient city, whose foundation dates back to the 10th century BC, could easily compete in terms of wealth and fame with Athens and Thebes. Until the middle of the 6th century BC, Corinth’s main export product was the black-figured vases, many of which made their way to several colonies in Magna Graecia.

The great temple on its Acropolis (the Acrocorinth) was dedicated to Aphrodite. Corinth was one of the most important cult centers for the Goddess of Love throughout its history. According to some sources, there were more than a thousand temple maidens serving at the Sanctuary of Aphrodite. Corinth was also famous for hosting Games similar to those in Olympia. They took place in Isthmia, hence the name Isthmian Games.

Around 730 BC, the city started to found colonies, such as on the island of Kerkyra (Corfu) and the city of Syracuse in Sicily. In 664 BC, Corinth and Kerkyra clashed in what is now known as the first Greek naval battle in history. In the 7th century BC, when Corinth was ruled by the tyrants Kypselos and Periander, the city sent out more colonists to found cities such as Poteidaia on the Chalkidiki peninsula, Ambrakia, Apollonia, and Anaktorion, and together with its colony Kerkyra, the cities of Leuka and Epidamnos.

The city was an important participant in the Persian Wars, as it joined Athens in the Battle of Salamis with the second largest fleet contingent. It also participated in the Battle of Plataea (479 BC) with a large contingent. However, a rift with Athens soon developed when in 462 BC the Athenian Kimon and his troops crossed Corinthian territory without permission. An open war followed, in which Corinth, in league with Epidaurus, defeated the Athenians at Halieis, but later lost an important naval battle in the Saronic Gulf. Only some ten years later, in 451 BC, a ceasefire and later a peace treaty were agreed upon with Athens.

However, the dispute continued to smolder and eventually became one of the key factors that led to the outbreak of the Peloponnesian War. When Corinth became involved in the internal political turmoil of the Kerkyrian colony of Epidamnos, its fleet first suffered a serious defeat. But in 433 BC, Corinth managed to win the naval battle near the Sybota islands just off the coast of Epeiros, which made Kerkyra turn to Athens with a request for help. As a consequence, Corinth joined the side of Sparta. After the end of the Peloponnesian War, in the face of the increasing hegemony of Sparta, the city’s government decided to switch sides and move closer to the Athenians. This resulted in the outbreak of the Corinthian War in 394 BC, in which Corinth and Athens once again fought together with Thebes and Argos against Sparta. Two years later, Corinth witnessed a revolution and became, for the first time in its long history, a democracy. The new government managed to establish a political union with the city-state of Argos. In 390 BC, internal political turmoil plunged the city almost into a civil war when a large number of its citizens fought with each other outside the walls. But in 386 BC, Sparta managed to restore its hegemony over the other Greek city-states. The political union between Corinth and Argos was abolished, and an aristocratic oligarchy favorable to the politics of Sparta was installed.

In 337 BC, Corinth fell under the rule of the Macedonians. After the murder of King Philip II of Macedonia in 336 BC, the Federal Assembly in Corinth chose his son Alexander the Great as the commanding general of the military campaign against Persia, which had already been planned by Philip. In the subsequent period, the city was under the rule of Macedonian noblemen. During this time, Corinth became the most populous city in Greece and was known far and wide for its thriving economic and cultural life. In 243 BC, the city was attacked and captured by the strategist of the Achaean League, Aratos. Under the reign of this important statesman, Corinth joined this league, but when its citizens, dissatisfied with his government, turned to the Spartan king Kleomenes III with a request for help, Aratos handed over the rule of Corinth to the Macedonian king Antigonos III in 224 BC. The victory of the Romans in the Battle of Kynoskephalai in 197 BC brought the Corinthians liberation from Macedonian tutelage, because the Romans forced the Macedonian garrison to withdraw. But after the expulsion of the Macedonians, Corinth joined once again the Achaean League and now ran a very anti-Roman policy.

When the Achaean League declared war on Sparta in 146 BC, a military clash with the Roman armies became unavoidable. The victorious Romans under the command of the general Lucius Mummius besieged Corinth, destroyed it, and murdered or enslaved all surviving inhabitants. The area fell partly to Sikyon, while the predominant part was declared “ager publicus” and handed over to Roman colonists.

Although there is archaeological evidence for a small revival after the destruction of Corinth in 146 BC, it took more than a century before the city was re-founded in 44 BC by Gaius Iulius Caesar as a Roman colony under the name “Colonia Laus Iulia Corinthiensis”. According to the Roman historian Appianus, the settlers were freedmen from Rome. Under the Romans, Corinth became the administrative seat of the province of Achaea in southern Greece, and for several decades the city was a Latin-speaking island in the midst of a Greek environment.

As early as the 2nd century CE, Corinth became the seat of a diocese, and at the latest in the 4th century, the seat of a metropolitan bishopric, remaining in that position until the rise of Athens at the beginning of the 9th century. In 267 CE, the city was destroyed by the invasion of the Goths and Herulians, but quickly rebuilt. For more than a hundred years, Corinth was able to experience a late flowering before it was plundered and sacked by Alaric I in 395 CE during the invasion of the Visigoths in Greece. Many of its citizens were sold into slavery. Nevertheless, Corinth could recover once again. In 521 CE, the city was heavily damaged as a result of a severe earthquake, but was rebuilt by the Emperor Iustinianus I. A few decades later, the Slavic invasions in Greece, starting around 580 CE, made almost all life in the ancient city impossible. Only after decades did it come back to a modest economic rise.

In 1147, the Gulf of Corinth became the operational base of Norman Roger II against the region of Arta. Roger soon occupied Corinth himself and resettled all native silk weavers to Palermo. However, the city was soon re-incorporated by Byzantium. In 1202, a high Byzantine official, Leon Sguros, managed to become master of the city, but only two years later his rule was ended by the participants of the Fourth Crusade, who took the city by force. In 1210, Corinth became part of the newly created Principality of Achaia and thus part of the Latin Empire. In the following years, the city had several rulers who made it the scene of bloody battles over influence in southern Greece. From 1421 to 1458, it was in Byzantine possession. In 1458, the Ottomans took power in Corinth, which had already become a completely insignificant city by that time. In 1611, the Knights of the Order of Malta made a raid on Corinth, which damaged the city even more. From 1687 to 1715, the Venetians ruled the place, in which only 1,500 inhabitants lived. The period of Ottoman rule ended in 1829/1830, and Corinth became Greek again. At the beginning of the Greek War of Independence, it had been considered for a time that Corinth should become the capital of the free Hellenic state. On the 21st of February 1858, the ancient city of Corinth was destroyed by an earthquake and rebuilt six kilometres to the northeast. Today, immediately adjacent to and for a large part right on top of the ancient settlement area is the village of Archaia Korinthos. Since the start of tourism in Greece in the 19th century, the ruins of Ancient Corinth with its temples, fountains, theatre, agora, shops, and paved streets have attracted many visitors.

Temple of Apollo in Corinth

The Temple of Apollo, built in the middle of the 6th century BCE, is probably the most famous testimony to the splendour of the ancient city. A particular feature of the temple is the use of monolithic columns rather than the more commonly used column drums. Seven columns remain standing today. Although only a small part of the ruins of the city has been excavated and so much has been destroyed during many invasions and wars, some remains of the buildings as they are today, together with their 2D and 3D archaeological reconstructions, still manage to give the visitor an idea of what Corinth must have looked like during the time when it was one of the most important Roman cities in the Eastern Mediterranean.

Noteworthy is the great agora, which probably dates back to the 4th century BCE and would not have changed much during the following centuries. To the east of the agora, the remains of the Basilica Iulia can be seen, a courthouse built by the Emperor Claudius in 44 CE. In the middle of the agora can be found the so-called “bema” or “rostrum”, a platform where important juridical and political decisions were announced to the citizens of Corinth. It is claimed by Christians as the place where the proselytiser Paul was questioned by Gallio, proconsul of the Roman province of Achaia. However, archaeological and historical research has proven this claim to be unsubstantial. Even the very presence of Paul in Corinth as well as his activities there have become more than doubtful. In the Middle Ages, this place was overbuilt by a church.

Lechaion Road, Corinth

In the north of the agora, an elaborately decorated arched gateway of the 1st century CE formed the beginning of the magnificent Lechaion Street, which was preserved in its original state until the 10th century. Even today, the paved street that was bordered by galleries featuring shops with all kinds of products from all over the Roman Empire and beyond is still very impressive to walk on. The Lechaion Street was a kind of “shopping mile” where almost all public life took place. There is also a well-preserved latrine to admire. During the 11th and 12th centuries, the area around the Lechaion Street was where the Byzantine aristocracy of the city built its rich houses. In the 17th century, the palace of the Ottoman Bey, governor of the city, of which hardly anything remains today, was built north of it.

In the south, the agora is bordered by the 154 m long Stoa, which was built by Philip II of Macedonia after 338 BCE as a guest house for the deputies of the Corinthian Confederation. At the back of it, there were numerous shops. During the period of Roman rule, the southern part of the Stoa functioned as the administrative seat of the Isthmian Games.

Fountain of Peirene, Corinth

Next to the arched gateway that leads onto the Lechaion Street lies the well house of the spring of Peirene, which was famous for its clear water. It was lavishly decorated, and its arcades were once equipped with several statues. Poets came to drink from its water in search of inspiration, as the spring had been linked to swift-winged Pegasos.

Roman Odeion, Corinth

Also worthy of mention are two impressive buildings lying to the north-west of the parking and entrance of the archaeological site and museum. The Odeion (or concert hall), dating from the 1st century CE, was substantially enlarged during the 2nd century by none other than Herodes Attikos, known from the Odeion in Athens. And the large Greek-period theatre (from the 4th century BCE, but with many later alterations) was replaced in the Roman period by an arena-equipped building, where even the performance of naval battles, the so-called Naumachiai, was possible.

• Kechries - Departing Ancient Corinth and after lunch, there is the possibility to visit the remains of the ancient port of Kechries. It was one of the two ports of ancient Corinth and served the eastern trade routes via the Saronic Gulf. Apostle Paul arrived at Kechries during his second missionary journey.

• On-board WiFi
• Complementary Bottled Water
• In-vehicle air conditioning
• Skip the Acropolis booth queues for tickets – optional advance booking available
• Private transportation
• Professional Tour Drivers (Not licensed to accompany you into the sites)

• Lunch
• Entrance fees
• English-speaking licensed tour guide (Optional / 360 Euros payable in cash).Subject to availability.
• Airport pickup/drop-off on request (additional fee varies by vehicle type)
• Gratuities

Combining the classical wonders of Athens with the ancient legacy of Corinth offers a seamless journey. In Athens, visitors explore the iconic Acropolis, witness the Hellenic Parliament and the Changing of the Guard at Syntagma Square, pass by the Temple of Olympian Zeus, and visit the Panathenaic Stadium. The journey continues to the striking Corinth Canal and Ancient Corinth, a significant city-state associated with Paul the Apostle and his letters to the Corinthians, including a stop at the coastal Cenchrae. With Hellenic Private Tours, travelers benefit from flexible itineraries, English-speaking certified drivers, modern licensed Mercedes vehicles, excellent international feedback, responsive customer service, and experienced licensed guides available upon request.

• Your English- speaking driver will explain about the ancient monuments that you are about to visit, the ancient history of Greece and interesting facts about historical and modern-day Greece but is not allowed by law to accompany you in the sites. If you wish to have a licensed tour guide to accompany you into the sites, we will help you arrange a licensed tour guide to be with you at an extra cost
• Your tour is totally private. No unknown passengers will participate in your group.
• Infant car seats are available upon request

For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.