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If you’re heading to Greece at the end of August, there’s a nationwide event that should be on your radar.
Each year, the country’s Ministry of Culture unlocks over a hundred archaeological sites, monuments and museums after dark to coincide with the full moon and lets visitors in for free.
This year, it will fall on Friday 28 August. From around 7:30 pm until midnight, visitors can enjoy historical treasures from temples to Minoan palaces under the moonlight, several with live concerts, choirs or guided tours built into the programme.
See Greece’s most famous archaeological sites by moonlight
Of the 126 sites, several are some of the top visited attractions in Greece, so seeing them in a different light is extra special.
One not to miss is Delphi, a sanctuary and town on Mount Parnassus where the ancient world travelled to for the Oracle’s word on wars, colonies and marriages. On 28 August, there is free entry to the site up to the Temple of Apollo terrace from 7:30/8 pm to midnight.
In the western Peloponnese of Greece, Ancient Olympia, the birthplace of the Olympic Games, will have free entry to both the site and museum, with guided tours by archaeologists, between 8 pm and midnight.
If you’re headed to Sparta, you can visit the medieval ghost town of Mystras, which will be open from 8 pm to midnight with a musical event.
In Athens, the Acropolis Museum remain open continuously from 9.00 am until midnight. Regular admission fees will apply to the permanent collections; ticket desks and shops will remain open until 11.30 pm.
Visitors will also be able to enjoy free admission to the temporary exhibition Inspiration: Ancient Greek Art in Italy, which runs until 30 August.
The exhibition brings together 38 significant works in ceramic, bronze and marble from museums across Italy, many of which have left their home collections for the first time.
A guided tour of the temporary exhibition, led by a museum archaeologist, will also take place at 6.00 pm on 28 August. Advance online booking through the museum’s reservation platform is required.
Lesser-known ancient treasures to have on your radar
There are also dozens of sites often overlooked in favour of the big hitters, which are well worth your time if you’re in the area, according to Yahya Dawood, founder of Bnbstay, a villa rental company across Greece and Cyprus.
He recommends the Nekromanteion of Acheron, in Epirus, an ancient sanctuary above the Acheron valley, believed by ancient visitors to be an entrance to the underworld where pilgrims consulted the spirits of the dead (free entry, 7.30/8 pm to midnight).
“Everything about this site was built around darkness and ritual, so visiting it after dark under a full moon isn’t a gimmicky experience – it’s actually one much closer to how it was meant to be experienced than a midday visit ever could be,” he says.
Dodona in northwestern Epirus is considered to be Greece’s oldest oracle site – older than Delphi – and was built around a sacred oak believed to speak for Zeus. You can visit for free between 8 pm and midnight.
On the island of Crete, Malia, a Minoan palace complex on the north coast, will open between 7.30/8 pm with a musical event featuring Greek singer Manolis Mitsias and a full choir.
Gortyna, also on Crete, will have free entry and a musical evening. The site is home to the Gortyn Code, the longest surviving ancient Greek inscription – 600 lines of 5th-century BCE civil law carved directly into stone.
Nafpaktos Castle is a Venetian castle overlooking the Gulf of Corinth from above the harbour town of Nafpaktos in Western Greece. “It’s the water that will really make this one special, because you’ll get the moon reflecting off the gulf as well as lighting the castle itself,” Dawood says.
For opera lovers, Dawood highlights the Sanctuary of Ammon Zeus in the village of Chalkidiki. The coastal sanctuary on the Kassandra peninsula is hosting a full staged opera performance of Orpheus and Eurydice this year.
The full list of sites can be found on the Ministry of Culture’s website.
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