The quarries that supplied the Acropolis — ancient open-cuts on the northern face of Penteli, still partly worked.
The Pentelikon quarries are the ancient open-cut marble workings on the northern face of Mt. Penteli — the source, from the 6th century BC onwards, of the white-and-cream marble that built the Parthenon, the Erechtheion, the Hephaisteion, and most of classical Athens.
The marble is pure calcite, brilliantly white when freshly cut, ageing to the warm honey-cream familiar from the Acropolis. The quarries were worked continuously from about 570 BC until the 19th century (when nearby Mt. Dionysos took over), and partially worked to this day. The ancient quarries are reached by a 20-minute drive from the suburb of Vrilissia up a narrow road; the upper site (Spilia) has the most dramatic open-cut faces — vertical walls fifty metres high, the cube blocks (parallelepipeds cut but never moved) still in place, the marks of the iron wedges and chisels visible in the stone. There are no signs, no entry fee, no museum — just the cliff and the silence. Bring: walking shoes, water, a head for vertigo (the edge is unfenced), a packed lunch. Combine with the monastery on the south slope for a half-day Penteli outing.
A Penteli morning.
Half-hour drive north-east; park at the monastery gate.
Forty-five minutes — the frescoes, the templon, the small treasury.
Twenty minutes up the slope; park at the upper site.
The cliffs, the cube blocks, the cinematic landscape; €0.
Packed lunch on the edge; Athens visible below; the most contemplative hour.
Half-hour drive back; coffee at the Semiramis on the way home.
Within twenty minutes.
Twenty minutes' drive south — the working Byzantine monastery.
Half-hour drive west — the former royal estate.
The northern Athens suburb at the foot of the road; coffee on the way down.
Half-hour drive north-east — the battlefield.
Twenty kilometres south; half-hour by car.
Tell us a little about the trip you want — pace, who's coming, how you'd like to spend your mornings. We'll build the days.
