Ancient Agora of Athens, Athens

The Ancient Agora of Athens is the open civic square where ancient Athenians traded, gathered for legal business, voted and talked. Socrates is remembered here for challenging people in the streets and colonnades. The Panathenaic Way once crossed the square diagonally during the city’s great festival procession toward the Acropolis.

Along the edges, covered stoas offered shelter to merchants, officials and philosophers. The Painted Stoa gave its name to the Stoics after Zeno of Citium taught there around 300 BC. The long Stoa of Attalos, visible on the eastern side, was presented by King Attalos II of Pergamon in the second century BC, rebuilt in the 1950s, and now contains the Agora Museum.

On the low hill rises the Temple of Hephaestus, remarkably well preserved. Excavation began in 1931, revealing foundations among which you walk today.