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Athens Greek is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, with its recorded history spanning over 3,400 years and its earliest human presence starting somewhere between the 11th and 7th millennium BC.Classical Athens was a powerful city-state. It was a center for the arts, learning and philosophy, and the home of Plato's Academy and Aristotle's Lyceum. It is widely referred to as the cradle of Western civilization and the birthplace of democracy, largely because of its cultural and political impact on the European continent particularly Ancient Rome. In modern times, Athens is a large cosmopolitan metropolis and central to economic, financial, industrial, maritime, political and cultural life in Greece. In 2021, Athens' urban area hosted more than three and a half million people, which is around 35% of the entire population of Greece.Athens is a Beta global city according to the Globalization and World Cities Research Network,and is one of the biggest economic centers in southeastern Europe. It has a large financial sector, and its port Piraeus is both the largest passenger port in Europe, and the second largest in the world.The Municipality of Athens (also City of Athens), which actually constitutes a small administrative unit of the entire city, had a population of 664,046 (in 2011) within its official limits, and a land area of 38.96 km2 (15.04 sq mi).The Athens Urban Area or Greater Athens extends beyond its administrative municipal city limits, with a population of 3,090,508 (in 2011) over an area of 412 km2 (159 sq mi).According to Eurostat in 2011, the functional urban area of Athens was the 9th most populous in the European Union (the 6th most populous capital city of the EU), with a population of 3.8 million people. Athens is also the southernmost capital on the European mainland and the warmest major city in Europe.

The heritage of the classical era is still evident in the city, represented by ancient monuments and works of art, the most famous of all being the Parthenon, considered a key landmark of early Western civilization. The city also retains Roman and Byzantine monuments, as well as a smaller number of Ottoman monuments, while its historical urban core features elements of continuity through its millennia of history. Athens is home to two UNESCO World Heritage Sites, the Acropolis of Athens and the medieval Daphni Monastery. Landmarks of the modern era, dating back to the establishment of Athens as the capital of the independent Greek state in 1834, include the Hellenic Parliament and the so-called "architectural trilogy of Athens", consisting of the National Library of Greece, the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens and the Academy of Athens. Athens is also home to several museums and cultural institutions, such as the National Archeological Museum, featuring the world's largest collection of ancient Greek antiquities, the Acropolis Museum, the Museum of Cycladic Art, the Benaki Museum and the Byzantine and Christian Museum. Athens was the host city of the first modern-day Olympic Games in 1896, and 108 years later it hosted the 2004 Summer Olympics, making it one of the few cities to have hosted the Olympics more than once.

Foods in  Athens :

(1) Mousakka : 

One of the most popular traditional Greek dishes that is eaten and served all over Greece. This baked dish is made with sauteed aubergines, minced beef cooked with tomatoes, creamy bechamel sauce and topped with a fluffy layer of cheese. Just salivating at the sound of this.

(2) Saganaki – Fried Cheese : 

Greek cuisine includes a lot of variety of cheese and do they love their cheese. This delightful dish is another classic representation of Greek food, which is usually eaten as an appetizer and simply prepared in 10 minutes with just two ingredients, flour and graveria cheese (hard molten white cheese).

(3) Souvlaki – Grilled Meats :

You can walk all over Greece and find plenty of street food vendors firing up their grills to prepare all sorts of skewered and charcoal barbecued meat, popularly lamb and pork. Best enjoyed as gyros or wrapped in Pita bread and served with delicious dips & sauces like Tzatziki.

(4) Tzatziki : 

An authentic Greek dish that is enjoyed with every meal, playing an important role in Greek cuisine as a beautiful & flavourful accompaniment serving as a sauce/dip for various Greek dishes. It’s a very easy and simple dish to cook, which includes yogurt, garlic and olive oil.

(5) Kolokythokeftedes – Courgette Balls : 

A tasty veggie treat that is a popular dish served in mezze mostly all over Greece. It’s like a lightly fried fritter with dill & mint, slightly creamy inside because of the Feta cheese filling and goes so well with Tzatziki. Definitely must eat authentic Greek food.

(6) Choriatiki – Greek Salad : 

You’ll notice that a lot of Greeks eat salads with every meal, and a Choriatiki particularly is a salad made of tomatoes, cucumber, feta cheese and olives / olive oil. With such wonderful fresh ingredients in abundance, you definitely would want to try a Greek salad.

(7) Olives & Olive Oil : 

Almost every Greek dish is accompanied with olives, and you’ll see the love for olives there is real. It’s been cultivated for centuries and has a strong influence on the cuisine. Every dish is usually prepared with Olive Oil too, and you’ll see them in many dips and sauces as well.

Weather & geography in  Athens :

Athens can be stiflingly hot, with temperatures occasionally exceeding 40°C (104°F) in July. Winters are mild in the south but much colder in the mountainous north, where it is not uncommon to see snow and temperatures plummeting to well below zero.

Per day Cost in  Athens :

How much money will you need for your trip to Athens? You should plan to spend around €103 ($122) per day on your vacation in Athens, which is the average daily price based on the expenses of other visitors. Past travelers have spent, on average, €30 ($36) on meals for one day and €22 ($26) on local transportation.

History of  Athens :

Athens is one of the oldest named cities in the world, having been continuously inhabited for perhaps 5,000 years. Situated in southern Europe, Athens became the leading city of Ancient Greece in the first millennium BC, and its cultural achievements during the 5th century BC laid the foundations of Western civilization.During the early Middle Ages, the city experienced a decline, then recovered under the later Byzantine Empire and was relatively prosperous during the period of the Crusades (12th and 13th centuries), benefiting from Italian trade. Following a period of sharp decline under the rule of the Ottoman Empire, Athens re-emerged in the 19th century as the capital of the independent and self-governing Greek state.