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The traces of most of Greece's ancient glories can be found within a 250 km radius around Athens.
The Acropolis, the Theater of Dionysus, and the Acropolis Museum are, of course, clustered together in downtown Athens, within walking distance of the city center that is, traditionally, Syntagma (Constitution) Square. The traveler can spend a morning visiting them and taking in the breathtaking achievements of the ancient city state that became the cradle of western ciilization.
About 150 km south of Athens, Mycenae stands tall above the Argolic plains, the hub of the first organized civilization on Greek land, and Greece's leading power in the Trojan war immortalized by Homer. The capital of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra, the home of Orestes and Ifigenea, Mycenae is today the source of mystery and speculation since so little written or other eidence on life during the Mycenaean civilization has been found.
A few kilometers away, the ancient Theater of Epidaurus is a pre-historic religious site and the best preserved theater of antiquity that hosts regular performances of ancient drama every summer.
Olympia, of course, on the west coast of the Peloponese, is the home of the Olympic Games. Sitting silently at the banks of the Alfeos river, the site includes the original stadium and the remains of the Temple of Zeus, that used to be home to Phedeas' gold-and-ivory statue of the father of Gods, one of the seven wonders of the Ancient World.
Finally, Delphi, the ancient Navel of the Earth and home to antiquity's most famous oracle, lies about 200 km northwest of Athens, on the slopes of Mount Parnassus. One of the most dramatic and memorable landscapes in the whole country, the site of Delphi usually leaves visitors humbled and stunned.
Starting in Athens, the traveler can visit Mycenae, Epidaurus, Olympia and Delphi in a relatively hectic 3 days, or a more leisurely 4-6 days.
The theater of Dionysus, the ancient god of theater, was built under the Acropolis in the 5th century BC and it had enough room for 15 thousand spectators.
