Amid Athens’ many layers of history lie secrets rarely told. They hide behind everyday facades, in the shadows of well-known landmarks, and beneath the city’s bustling streets.
🔔BOOK NOW: Unique city walks in Athens | Limited spots available 📅
On our guided tours, we explore some of these places. We step in where others pass by – behind a locked gate, down a narrow staircase, through doors that seem to lead nowhere. But our steps always lead further.
We pass abandoned vaults, hidden chambers, and walls etched with mysterious markings. We experience the city from a new perspective, where the past comes alive again.
✨ Feel free to tip off someone you know who’s visiting Athens this spring! 📣
Guided tours in Athens – a sneak peek at the route
One of the places we visit is Hadrian’s water reservoir, located by the popular Dexameni Square in the Kolonaki district. The Roman emperor Hadrian, a great admirer of Greek culture, dreamed of creating a “New Athens” – Hadrian’s Athens. For that, water was essential – the lifeblood of any new city.
Nearly two thousand years later, in the 19th century, as Athens was being rebuilt as the capital of the new Greek state, the city once again faced serious water shortages. Hadrian’s old aqueduct was rediscovered almost by chance – an unexpected gift from history that would once again breathe life into the city.
We also descend beneath the surface into the catacombs of the Russian Church. There, beneath the elegant marble floor, an unassuming hatch leads down to hidden passageways and dark chambers, where history rests in silence – yet remains vividly present.
Another of our hidden stations is the remains of Themistocles’ defensive wall – surprisingly well preserved in the middle of a modern stairwell, where the contemporary building seems to have grown up around and over the ancient stonework.
Dare to descend the desolate staircase, and suddenly, the wall appears – a silent yet powerful reminder of ancient Athens’s defenses and the city’s long and layered history.
The old Gestapo detention cell is another place we visit with care. Here, the walls have been deliberately left to speak for themselves, with minimal external interference. Marks and objects bear witness to a dark chapter in modern Greek history.
In the very heart of the city, the arcades await – half-hidden, tucked-away passageways that connect central streets and neighborhoods. They’re not ancient but have been a distinctive part of Athens’ urban landscape since the post-war era.
For decades, they served as lively commercial hubs, where shops, crafts, and everyday life flowed through the covered walkways. Today, many of them are quieter, partly abandoned – yet they still carry traces of another Athens.
Along the way, we also encounter Ernst Ziller’s former residence – once a grand mansion, now a quiet reminder of the elegance that defined the city center before modernisation took hold. Ziller was a prominent architect in the late 19th century whose buildings helped shape the neoclassical Athens we still see today.
In the shadow of the urban bustle lies Frog Island (Βατραχονήσι) and the forgotten bed of the Ilissos River – a hidden oasis in the very heart of the city, where nature and the city live side by side.
Close to it, a curious relief of the god Pan appears, visible only to those who know where to look.
Another mysterious site is the so-called Split Rock, or Little Lycabettus, around which imaginative myths still circulate – even though, geologically speaking, it is considered a natural formation.
The walk will also take us past two small chapels – modest, yet significant in Greek history – and over Filopappou Hill, along the artfully crafted pathway designed by the renowned architect, Dimitris Pikionis.
Each place we visit carries its mystery, its own hidden story. Our tour isn’t about giving you all the answers but about opening doors to questions you may never have thought to ask. We move carefully, consciously, through layers of forgetting, curiosity, and respect.
The tours are designed to leave space for reflection and imagination. When you join us, you don’t just step into history – you become a part of it. It’s about seeing and sensing the pulse of Athens from a place the typical tourist eye rarely reaches.
Here, you can follow one of our city walks through the lesser-known side of Athens >>
Our tours are more than just walks. They’re slow journeys of discovery into the true soul of Athens – adventures beyond the usual tourist paths, into the city’s timeless secrets. We’re there to share our knowledge but also to give you the space to reflect on what you see.
The tours will run throughout spring 2025 – from March to June.
Questions or bookings? Get in touch: 📞 0046 722 029786 📧 contact@greekexpedition.com
More information ca be found on our booking page >>
✨ Feel free to tip off someone you know who’s visiting Athens this spring! 📣