Panathenaic Stadium

Why go

The stadium's own website dates its first construction to 330/329 BC under the Athenian orator and politician Lycurgus, its rebuilding by Herodes Atticus in AD 140-143 and its marble renovation by Georgios Averoff for the first modern Olympic Games in 1896, and lists its use in 2004 for archery and the finish of the marathon. The site calls it an archaeological monument and part of the sporting and Olympic history of Greece and the Hellenic Olympic Committee. Its visit page says reduced and free tickets are issued only at the stadium's ticket offices on presentation of documents, a ticket is valid only for its date and cannot be refunded, and the ticket covers walking in the stadium, running onto the field, the vaulted passage and the permanent exhibition of Olympic posters and torches. This record is the stadium as a monument; events held there are not places.