1. Home
  2. Greece
  3. Athens
  4. Mysteries & legends

Athens · Mysteries & legends

Curses, dervishes and a prison without a prisoner

Athens has been recycling its stones and its stories for twenty-five centuries. On this walk you visit the corners where popular memory took hold of the monuments: pagan reliefs “baptised” with crosses, a tower where dervishes danced, a neighbourhood built overnight and a cave with a famous inmate who probably never set foot in it. We'll tell you what's documented and what's tradition.

  • 6 stops
  • 2.1 km
  • 1 h 55 min
  • Free
Start with GPS Read about this stop 1
1762 engraving of the half-buried Tower of the Winds

The route

Stop by stop

  1. 1 The Little MetropolisA tiny church built from some ninety pieces of pagan temples and tombs, a few of them “baptised” with a cross.
  2. 2 Church of KapnikareaAn 11th-century church in the middle of the shopping street, which nearly fell victim to a straight new street plan.
  3. 3 Tzistarakis MosqueThe mosque an Ottoman governor built with an ancient column, and the plague Athenians believed was his punishment.
  4. 4 Tower of the WindsA two-thousand-year-old clock with eight winged gods, which ended up as a place where dervishes danced.
  5. 5 AnafiotikaA Cycladic village clinging to the Acropolis, which tradition says was built by night to get around the law.
  6. 6 The so-called Prison of SocratesRock-cut chambers that tradition turned into the philosopher's cell, and that hid the statues of the Acropolis during the war.

Loading the map…

Start with GPS

Guide mode

Walk it with GPS.

Open guide mode on your phone: you’ll see your position and the distance to each stop, and we’ll let you know when you arrive. Then read or listen.

Start with GPS

  1. Turn on your location

  2. Walk to the spot

  3. Check the photo and listen

What you’ll discover

Curses, dervishes and a prison without a prisoner

Legends with an address

Every story is tied to a façade, a tower or a rock you can actually touch.

Record and tradition

We separate what the sources say from what people tell, so you can enjoy the mystery without being misled.

Ottoman Athens

Mosques, dervishes and governors: the side of the city almost nobody explains.

Keep exploring

More routes in Athens

Back to Athens
HistoryBefore Athens was Athens: theatres, courts and emperors MixedFrom Syntagma to the Parthenon: the must-see Athens

Itineraries

How many days do you have in Athens?

We’ve planned it day by day for you: which routes to walk and in what order, what else to see and where to eat.

1

Athens in 1 day

All three routes in one full day: the highlights, the history and the legends at dusk.

See the itinerary 2

Athens in 2 days

A gentler pace: the three routes over two days, plus extra sights and where to eat.

See the itinerary 3

Athens in 3 days

The city in depth: one route a day, extra museums and neighbourhoods, and a day for good food.

See the itinerary