Just across from Zappion and the National Gardens is the Panathiniakos Stadium, also called Kalimarmaro which hosted the 1896 Olympics.
It is made entirely of marble and is actually a refurbishment of the staduim rebuilt by Herod Atticus in 140 AD from the marble stadium built by Lycurgus in 329 BC.
I saw the Harlem Globtrotters here in 1968 and my daughter saw REM here in 2008.
It costs about 3 euros to get in and they give you an audio tour. But I just come for the view. When I took this photo I told them I did not want the audio-tour machine.
So when I left and did not have one they assumed I snuck in by climbing over the back wall. I had an entourage of angry people comfront me at the exit. They asked me why I did not have a machine.
I said I didn't want one. They asked for my ticket stub. I said "I will show you my ticket stub but if you are so sure I snuck in will you give me 100 euros if I produce it?"
He agreed.
I pulled out my ticket stub and asked for my 100 euros. He told me to get it from the cashier. But I didn't. Greece has enough financial problems.

Right before I took this series of photos I accidentally changed the setting on my camera so it would look better on a widescreen TV. But for these photos it was a fortuitous mistake.
By the way the Athens Classic Marathon ends here too. It is the original marathon which begins, of course, in Marathon.