biancaelenadamian's User Profile - Atlas Obscura
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Athens, Greece

Magic Sphere of Helios

This mystical orb covered in strange symbols is thought to have been used in ancient Greek magical rituals.
Athens, Greece

Panathenaic Stadium Passage

Gladiators once walked this ancient, subterranean passage.
Elefsina, Greece

Plutonian Cave of Eleusis

According to legend, this cavern holds the passage that Persephone used to travel to and from the underworld.
Athens, Greece

Zappeion

A man's head is enshrined beneath a statue near the first building constructed for the modern Olympic Games.
Athens, Greece

Lycabettus Funicular

The railway carts travelers to central Athens's highest peak, which offers stunning vistas of the city.
Athens, Greece

Theatre of Dionysus

Heralded as the world's first theater, these ruins are often overlooked as they reside in the shadows of the Acropolis.
Athens, Greece

Anafiotika

The Cycladic architecture makes this Athens neighborhood feel like an island paradise hidden in the shadow of the Acropolis.
Athens, Greece

Hadrian's Reservoir

This ancient hydrological marvel is now the base of a modern outdoor cinema.
Athens, Greece

The Athenian Agora

This ancient Greek place of assembly and marketplace is being revealed layer by layer below the modern Athens cityscape.
Athens, Greece

Antikythera Mechanism

A 2,000-year-old computer demonstrates remarkable engineering and astronomical precision.
Thessaloniki, Greece

Nymfopetra

Legends hold that these unusual rock formations were once a bridal party, or perhaps a group of hunters.
Thessaloniki, Greece

Heptapyrgion Fortress

An abandoned Byzantine fortress and notorious prison.
Thessaloniki, Greece

Abandoned Bogomils Graveyard

This field of half-buried stone crosses was the burial place of a sect of heretical gnostics.
Thessaloniki, Greece

Bensousan Han

An artistic melting pot inside an old roadside inn from the Ottoman era.
Thessaloniki, Greece

Yeni Camii

This architecturally eclectic early-20th century mosque was built as a place of worship for the Islamic followers of a Jewish messiah.
Palermo, Italy

Qanat di Palermo

A network of underground water channels that dates back to the Middle Ages.
Palermo, Italy

La Zisa

This Arabesque Italian castle was built with a primitive, if ingenious, air-conditioning system.
Palermo, Italy

Capuchin Monastery Catacombs

Thousands of well-dressed mummies below a monastery.
Palermo, Italy

Cappella Palatina

Every inch of this chapel is covered in craftsmanship from across the world.
Palermo, Italy

San Giovanni degli Eremiti

Behind medieval walls in a corner of bustling Palermo is a breathtaking former mosque once inhabited by a wolf-taming hermit.
Palermo, Italy

Porta Nuova

This triumphal 16th-century arched gateway leads to the oldest street in Palermo.
Palermo, Italy

Arabic Inscription of Palermo Cathedral

Why a column on the entrance is inscribed with a verse from the Quran is one of Sicily's many mysteries.
Palermo, Italy

The Martorana

This mosaic-lined medieval church was built by the world's first admiral and still holds mass in ancient Greek.
Palermo, Italy

Santa Maria dello Spasimo

This skeletal, unfinished Gothic church once housed a miraculous masterpiece by Raphael.