GR · Curated travel guide
Parthenon, Acropolis of Athens, Olympia, Greece and 7 more — what each one is, and why it is worth the detour.
Chosen from everything Wikidata knows about Greece and ranked by how many Wikipedia language editions describe them, which is about as close to "famous" as open data gets. 2 are on UNESCO's World Heritage list.
Temple on the Athenian Acropolis, Greece
A former temple to the goddess Athena on the Athenian Acropolis, Greece. Its sculptural decoration is counted among the peaks of classical Greek art, and the building itself is seen as a lasting symbol of democracy, Western civilisation and ancient Greece.
Photo: Steve Swayne, CC BY 2.0
World Heritage
Ancient citadel above the city of Athens
An ancient citadel on a rocky outcrop over Athens, Greece, where the ruins of several ancient buildings stand, important for both history and architecture, the Parthenon the most famous. The name joins two Greek words: akron (ἄκρον), meaning the highest point or extremity, and polis (πόλις), meaning city.
Photo: A.Savin, CC BY-SA 3.0
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World Heritage
Town in Elis, Greece
Officially Archaia Olympia, a small town in Elis, on Greece's Peloponnese peninsula, famous for the archaeological site of the same name nearby. That site was one of ancient Greece's great Panhellenic sanctuaries, where the ancient Olympic Games were staged once in four years all through classical antiquity, from the 8th century BC until the 4th century AD.
Photo: dronepicr, CC BY 2.0
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Statue of the Greek god Helios
A statue of Helios, the Greek sun god, set up in 280 BC by Chares of Lindos in Rhodes, the main city of the Greek island that shares its name. One of the ancient world's Seven Wonders, it celebrated Rhodes's successful defence against Demetrius I of Macedon, who had laid siege to it for a year with a big army and fleet.
Photo: gravure sur bois de Sidney Barclay numérisée Google, Public domain
Ancient Greek sculpture by Phidias
A huge statue of Zeus seated, roughly 12.4 m (41 ft) high, which Phidias, the Greek sculptor, made in about 435 BC at Olympia's sanctuary in Greece and placed inside the Temple of Zeus. In ancient Greek religion Zeus was the god of sky and thunder, reigning over the gods from Mount Olympus.
Photo: Quatremère de Quincy, Public domain
Archaeological site in Greece
An archaeological site near Mykines, in Argolis, in the north-east of Greece's Peloponnese. Athens is about 120 kilometres away to its north-east, Argos 11 kilometres to its south and Corinth 48 kilometres to its north.
Photo: Andreas Trepte, CC BY-SA 2.5
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Mountain and peninsula in northeastern Greece
A peak rising straight from the Aegean Sea on Greece's Athos peninsula, in the northeast of the country, and a major centre of Orthodox monastic life.
Photo: Dave Proffer, CC BY 2.0
Group of islands in Greece
A group of islands in the Ionian Sea, west of the Greek mainland. They are traditionally called the Heptanese, though besides the seven main islands there are many smaller ones.
Photo: Hedwig Storch, CC BY-SA 3.0
Group of Greek islands
A group of Greek islands, 15 larger and 150 smaller, 26 of them inhabited, in the southeastern Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean, off Anatolia's coast. They generally mark the Sea of Crete's eastern edge.
Photo: Wojsyl, CC BY-SA 3.0
Archaeological site and Minoan palace complex in Heraklion, Crete
An archaeological site on Crete, Greece, once an urban centre in ancient times, on the southern outskirts of Heraklion; the city's historic core is roughly 5 km (3.1 mi) to the site's north.
Photo: Bernard Gagnon, CC BY-SA 3.0
Officially the Hellenic Republic, a Southeastern European country at the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, home to around 10 million people. Its nine regions and thousands of islands give it the Mediterranean's longest coastline.
Officially The Hellenic Republic. Known locally as Hellas Ελλάς.
Based on the Wikipedia article, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0: the facts are Wikipedia's, the wording is this site's.
This guide lists 10: Parthenon, Acropolis of Athens, Olympia, Greece and Colossus of Rhodes and others. Acropolis of Athens and Olympia, Greece are UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
By machine, from open data, with no human ranking them and nobody able to pay for a place on the list. Everything Wikidata records in Greece that is a building, a landform, a protected area or a tourist attraction, has coordinates, a photograph and an English Wikipedia article, is ranked by how many Wikipedia language editions wrote about it. Provinces, cities, airports, stations and stretches of sea shared with the neighbours are filtered out.
2 of the 10 in this guide: Acropolis of Athens and Olympia, Greece. That is not the full count for Greece, only the listed sites that made this guide.
Greek. The currency is EUR.
A travel eSIM is usually the cheapest way, and avoids a roaming bill. The plans suggested at the foot of this guide start at $1.81 for 2GB per day. The eSIM is data-only and sits alongside your normal SIM, so calls, texts and WhatsApp keep working on your own number.
Wind and Vodafone. Your phone picks whichever has the best signal where you are, the same way a local phone does.
Maps, tickets and translation all want data, and roaming is the expensive way to get it. A Computatus eSIM eSIM connects to Wind and Vodafone once you land, and installs by QR code before you leave.
| Plan | Data | Valid | Price | Order |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2GB per day Cheapest | 2 GB | 1 day | $1.81 | Get it → |
| 2GB per day | 2 GB | 1 day | $2.15 | Get it → |
| 3GB per day | 3 GB | 1 day | $2.54 | Get it → |
| 3GB for 15 days | 3 GB | 15 days | $2.69 | Get it → |
| 3GB for 30 days | 3 GB | 30 days | $2.86 | Get it → |
| 3GB per day | 3 GB | 1 day | $3.04 | Get it → |
No app needed. Install by QR code before you fly, keep your own number for calls, and it connects the moment you land.
A commission on plans bought through these links is what pays for this guide. Nothing above depends on it: the places are chosen before any price is looked up.
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