Which capital city is home to the Acropolis?

Athens is the capital city home to the Acropolis, the ancient citadel rising above the Greek capital.

The Acropolis of Athens occupies a rocky outcrop in the centre of Athens. The name “acropolis” means “upper city” or “highest city,” and the term can describe fortified high places elsewhere in Greece. In everyday use, however, “the Acropolis” usually means Athens’s famous archaeological complex.

Its best-known monument is the Parthenon, built in the fifth century BC during the leadership of Pericles. The hill also contains the Propylaea, the Erechtheion and the Temple of Athena Nike. These buildings formed part of a major rebuilding programme that celebrated Athens’s power and religious identity after the Persian Wars.

A common mix-up is treating the Acropolis and Parthenon as synonyms. The Acropolis is the entire fortified hill and archaeological site; the Parthenon is one temple within it. The site was seriously damaged in 1687, when Venetian bombardment ignited gunpowder stored inside the Parthenon. Today, the Acropolis remains Athens’s defining landmark and a UNESCO World Heritage site.