Renowned for its iconic landmarks and richly-layered history, the city of Athens is jam-packed with archaeology. Home to the famous monuments of the Acropolis and the medieval Daphni Monastery, both UNESCO World Heritage Sites, Athens has been continuously inhabited for over 5000 years, making it one of the world’s oldest cities.

While the Classical, Roman, and Byzantine heritage of the Greek capital is represented just about everywhere you look, less well known is the “invisible” urban fabric buried below the modern surface, including evidence of the adaptive use of spaces, buildings, and civic infrastructure by ordinary Athenians over the millennia.

These missing pieces, whilst hidden from view, have been surveyed and recorded over the course of 160 years of systematic archaeological excavations in the city. The remains of ancient houses, roads, cemeteries, cisterns, production sites (e.g. pottery workshops) are all sitting below the surface; an archaeological palimpsest of cultural and urban development from the Neolithic to the modern day.

Greece’s Council of Museum has unanimously approved the preliminary architectural and structural plans for the much-anticipated Museum of Underwater Antiquities in Piraeus. The positive response now paves the way for the transformation of the landmark Silo building on the waterfront of the Piraeus Port Authority (PPA) into a pioneering state museum dedicated to Greece’s ancient maritime heritage.

The creation of the museum in the Silo building, constructed between 1934 and 1936, is a significant step towards realising the goals of the ongoing “Piraeus Cultural Coast Project,” which aims to develop cultural tourism and encourage further economic growth in the city, home to the country’s largest port.

Before there were cars, traffic jams and smog, there was public transport. In Athens, the first scheduled means of such was by horse and carriage. The next, a railway running alongside the important route of the carriages, connecting the center of Athens to the port in Piraeus, was founded in 1869. Today, with the Attica basin transformed into a bustling urban landscape with a population of nearly 4 million, the modern public transport system can only barely keep up with the daily comings and goings. As a visitor to the city, the options may seem plenty – yet confusing.

When we picture the landscape of Greece, images of Cycladic islands in the heart of the Aegean, with their characteristic whitewashed architecture, blue shutters and taverna chairs, best encapsulate the scene.

Indeed, blue and white are the colors we most associate with Greece; cloudless blue skies, the white crests of waves on the horizon, and, of course, the myriad shades of blue sea. It’s fitting, therefore, that blue and white feature on the universal symbol of Greek national identity – the flag.

The national flag of Greece, instantly recognizable by its blue and white, cross-and-stripe pattern, was officially adopted by the Greek state in December 1978. Its origins, however, can be traced back 200 years to the First National Assembly of December 1821-January 1822, less than a year after the start of the Greek Revolution.

The Orthodox Christian holiday of Theophany, also known as the Epiphany, the Celebration of the Lights, or simply ta Fota (the Lights), held every January 6, is the third and final major feast day of the holiday period. Along with St John’s Day, observed the following day, the Epiphany ends the Christmas period in the most festive and symbolic of ways.

The letter is dated January 31, 1949, Rome. “Dear Evangelos,” it begins. “I will not be back for a long time. I will continue my journey to other parts of Europe so that I can be fully trained in the techniques of our business, and we can present products that are perfect in every respect once I return to Greece. Kisses, Nikos.”

The dining room table of the Papadopoulos family, laid out for a big Sunday meal, is the centerpiece of the Benaki Museum’s impressive and original new exhibition, “Papadopoulos 100: The Story of the Company 1922-2022.” Arranged around the table in an orderly fashion, the chairs look like they’re waiting for the guests to arrive, pull them out and bring the stage-like setting to life.

In 1973, between November 14 and 17, a brave and determined act of resistance against the far-right military dictatorship that had ruled Greece since 1967 took place within the precinct of the National Technical University of Athens (Polytechneio) and surrounding areas of Exarchia.

Inspired by the youth movements of the 1960s, notably the student occupations and general strikes of May 1968 in France, what started as a demonstration against dictatorial rule and the abolition of civil rights soon escalated into an open revolt against the military regime, joined in support by many thousands of students and workers from across Greece.

The shocking events of those three days in 1973, including a brutal crackdown against the protestors that resulted in the loss of at least 24 lives and many hundreds of wounded, signalled the beginning of the end of the junta.

The sacrifice of the students had not been in vain. Over the course of the political changeover, parliamentary democracy was gradually restored and, in June 1975, the Third Hellenic Republic was born.