Acropolis Athens Accessibility: the Lift, Routes and Entrances

The Acropolis is partly accessible. A lift carries wheelchair users to the plateau, and marked routes lead round the Parthenon. It depends on the weather, on a phone call, and on which gate you use. Looking at acropolis tours athens greece? Read the lift rules before you book a slot.

The lift and the 350 m route from the Main Entrance

The Acropolis lift opened in 2020 for visitors with disabilities and reduced mobility. Here is how a visit with it works, in order.

1. Phone ahead. Call the Acropolis guards' office on 2131317762 before you set off. The Ministry asks for the call one hour before you arrive.
2. Validate at the Main Entrance. Your ticket is checked at the Main Entrance on the west slope, never at the South entrance.
3. Take the separate gate. Access to the lift is from a separate entrance north of the Main Entrance, along a route about 350 m long built to accessible specifications.
4. Ride up with staff. Wheelchair users always travel with trained security staff. The lift rises about 25 m and opens onto the plateau north of the Erechtheion.
5. Come down the same way. You leave by the same routes and the same lift.

Check the lift before you go

The lift also stops in severe weather and strong wind, so keep a second date free if the visit depends on it. The Ephorate's general line is +30 210 9238747, and its email is efaath@culture.gr.

The routes on the plateau, and the steep one

From the top of the lift, marked routes lead round the main monuments. You follow them in this order.

1. West of the Erechtheion toward the north side of the Parthenon, passing the place of the sacred olive tree and the foundations of the old temple of Athena, with the base of the Athena Promachos and the Propylaea on your right.
2. A choice at the Parthenon. Turn left along its north colonnade toward the east, or right toward the Propylaea. The right turn has a steep gradient of more than 6%.
3. South along the east front of the Parthenon, past the remains of the Temple of Rome and Augustus, to the southern wall and the old museum.

At the end of that route a second lift takes you down to the courtyard of the old museum, closed to the public since 2007, where there are toilets.

Which entrance validates your ticket

The Main Entrance is also where the cloakroom is, just north of it and outside the site. It takes strollers but does not accept large luggage.

The south slope and the Ancient Agora, step-free in part

The south slope, covered by the same ticket, is accessible from its entrance on Dionysiou Areopagitou as far as the west passageway of the Theatre of Dionysus. In the Ancient Agora, wheelchair access to the Temple of Hephaistos is through the Thiseion Square gate on Apostolou Pavlou Street, once you have called 210 3214824 or 210 3210180. Both levels of the Agora museum in the Stoa of Attalos are wheelchair accessible; ask the guards for the lift to the upper floor. The Agora museum also keeps tactile site plans and Braille brochures in Greek and English.

Strollers, infants and toilets

• Strollers: the shared walks say strollers are not allowed on the Acropolis. One lets you leave a stroller at its Porinou 5 office; the cloakroom also takes them.
• Two or more infants: a parent alone with two or more infants may use the lift, on the same phone-ahead terms.
• Toilets inside: under renovation and closed. Use the permanent toilets to the right of the Main Entrance or the portable ones to its left before you go in.
• Accessible toilets: at the Information Centre, 18–20 Dionysiou Areopagitou, 50 m east of the South Slope entrance, and at the old museum courtyard via the second lift.
• Assistance dogs are allowed; other pets are not.

The Acropolis Museum is step-free throughout

If the lift is out of action, the museum is the part of the day you can count on. It has ramps for wheelchairs and strollers at every entrance, lifts and accessible toilets on every floor, and wheelchairs to borrow at the visitor services desk. A short Braille guide in Greek and English is at the information desk, and guide dogs are welcome. Strollers can be borrowed at the cloakroom, and there is a parents' room on the first floor. The Parthenon Gallery on the third floor looks straight across at the monument.

Tours for limited mobility

No guided walk up the rock lists wheelchair access. The private car tours in the table list wheelchair-accessible transport, which collects you from your hotel. None of their drivers may guide inside the site, so you go up with the security staff and your own party, or book a licensed guide on request.