Hello local guides from all around the world!
This is day 2 of my trip in Athens. With my colleagues had breakfast in the hotel and decided to go to the highest hill in Athens - mount Lycabettus. It took us about 30-40 minutes from the hotel to the Lycabettus.
Mount Lycabettus is the highest hill in Athens. Its height is 300 meters above the sea. The rock from which the hill is formed is a Cretaceous limestone. Mythologically, Lycabettus is credited to Athena, who created it when dropped a limestone mountain carrying it from Pallene peninsula fro construction of Acropolis. On the top of hill is located 19th century Chapel of St. George, a theatre and a restaurant.
The view is the thing I had been arrived to see in the hill. From there you will see the Acropolis, Panathenaic Stadium also the sea. What can I say. It’s very beautiful. We stay there about 10 minutes. Then we went down and we saw a lot of cacti.
The next landmarks we visited are Academy of Athens, [University of Athens](http://National%20and Kapodistrian University of Athens) and National library of Greece. The architecture of these buildings is amazing. The first landmark we will see is the Academy of Athens. The columns of the academy are in Ionic style. It was established in 1926. The construction the main building started in 1859. In 1864 the construction stopped. Work resumed in 1968 but was not completed until 1885. Until 1926 it was used as museum. From 1926 it operates under supervision of the Ministry of Education. In front of the building there are trees strewn with tangerines.
Right to Academy of Athens is the University of Athens. Since its establishment in 1837 is the oldest educational institution in modern Greeek state and the first contemporary university in Eastern Mediterranean. Today it is one of the largest universities in Europe with over 100 000 registered students. The architecture of the building is in the same style like the Academy of Athens - ionic style. It contains 8 schools with separate departments. In raking it’s the first in Greece and 70th in Europe. In 2019 it’s listed in 219th place out of 12 000 universities worldwide.
The next landmark is the National Library of Greece. The library is established in 1832 and the style of the building is a doric. The original idea for establishing came from the philhellene Johan Jakob Mayer in 1824 article of his newspaper Ellinika Chronica. Today the library is relocated due to limited space and technology demands. The new location is at Stavros Niarchos Cultural Center.
After that we decided to go to the Panathenaic Stadium. The stadium was built by Athenian statesman Lykourgos in 330 BC for Panatheniac Games. The cappacity of the stadium in 144 AD was impressive - 50 000 people. After the rise of Christianity it was abandoned. The stadium was renovated in 1869 and hosted Zappas Olympics in 1870 and 1875. It hosted the first Modern Olympics in 1896 and was the venue for 4 of 9 sports. Once again I was impressed by the Ancient Greeks how they actually like the art and the beautiful things.
The Panathenaic Stadium was the last landmark we visisted for the day and decided again to go to the Zappeion. After the Zappeion we had dinner and we made a little walk.
That was my article for the second day of my trip. I hope you like this article. Tomorrow I will post something special from the third day. Stay tuned.
Greetings from Bulgaria