Welcome to the latest edition of our little Greece Travel Secrets magazine. For this issue I thought I’d concentrate on the region of Attica. That’s the administrative region that surrounds and includes Athens.
Attica often gets overlooked by overseas visitors, which is why it’s worth exploring. The first time I did so I was delighted at having many of the archaeological sites completely to myself. You do need a car to get to some of the more remote places, which puts people off.
I rented a car at Athens airport and instead of driving into the city (a nightmare thought, my first time driving in Greece), I drove away from the city to Cape Sounion, and spent my first night there. It was magical, watching the sun set over the Temple of Poseidon while sitting outside having a meal and some retsina. I was then able to visit the temple early the next morning, before visitors started to arrive.
Vravrona
About a 45-minute drive from Cape Sounion is the ancient site of Vravrona, or Brauron. The story of Vravrona is a fascinating one. Its main focus is the mysterious Sanctuary of Artemis, of which only the foundations remain today. Artemis is the Greek equivalent of the Roman goddess Diana, is the daughter of Zeus, and the twin sister of Apollo. She was the moon goddess as well as the goddess of childbirth, the harvest, hunting, and wildlife. Every four years a festival would take place at Vravrona in which young girls of marriageable age would dress as she-bears and dance. to Artemis.
Marathon
Another 45-minute drive from Vravrona brings you to Marathon. I won’t repeat all the historical background to the Battle of Marathon, which led to the founding of marathon races, as you can read all about it on this page all about Marathon. It’s quite a feeling to stand and gaze at the mound where the 192 Athenian soldiers who died in the battle were buried. In contrast, 6,400 Persian soldiers were killed, a resounding and proud victory for the Greek army, which was outnumbered by about 2-1.
Rhamnous
Only fifteen minutes from Marathon, if you have a car, is the archaeological site of Rhamnous. That’s one of the places I had to myself on my first visit, on a glorious sunny day. It’s one of the best-preserved sites in Attica, and has been excavated since 1975. It’s thought that some of the Persian troops who were headed to fight at the Battle of Marathon came ashore here, and then faced a three-hour hike to the battleground.
I still remember wandering around the site, which is a little overgrown in places. There were butterflies everywhere, and lizards scuttling away to hide, or just sitting on rocks to soak up the heat of the sun.
Rhamnous is also in a lovely location, overlooking the Euboean Strait to the island of Evia, which you can see in the first photo above, in the background. This is one of those places that’s hard to get to without a car. The closest bus stop is in the village of Kato Souli, and you then face a 90-minute walk to the site.
A Drive Around Attica
These are just some of the many places you can visit in Attica. I’ve put together a suggested route which would take you to a few of them. It starts in Athens and takes you all the way to Chalkida, on Evia, via Cape Sounion and Marathon, though you can easily divert slightly to visit Vravrona and Rhamnous too. There’s a link to a downloadable PDF of the drive on the website here: A Drive Around Attica.
I hope this might inspire you to explore part of Attica. It’s really easy if you rent a car at Athens International Airport. You don’t have to go into the city at all, and could be like I was, having a sundowner as the sun goes down over the Temple of Poseidon.
Till next time… Yammas!
Mike and Donna