One of the most popular ancient sites in the world, the Acropolis in Athens, has started to offer private tours for 5,000 euros ($5,400), which has incited protests from the site’s guardians.
As to the official website of the culture ministry section responsible for overseeing the hilltop location, group visits are scheduled to take place outside of regular business hours and are restricted to a maximum of five participants each.
Typical admission is 20 euros, or 30 euros if you want to visit multiple places.
“The Acropolis Experience now offers visitors the exclusive opportunity to enjoy this perfect architectural expression of the Greek spirit in private,” according to the website of Hellenic Heritage.
On Tuesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays starting at 7:00 am or 8:00 pm, up to four group visits can occur at once.
Greek media reported that a Russian couple and their private guide made the first of these visits on Saturday.
The site was open for unguided tours beginning on July 12 and guided tours beginning on August 2 on Tuesday. Tours can be given in English, French, German, Greek, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish, according to the website.
When the initiative was first unveiled last year, it caused a stir. The union that represents security personnel at archaeological sites declared its opposition to these unofficial, private tours.
According to the union’s president Georgia Kondyli, “no information about how these visits are organised” had been provided to the union.
“We can understand that there is a financial need behind this measure, but it could have been organised differently,” Kondyli said.
Constructed in the fifth century BC and designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Acropolis has seen an increase in tourism, partly due to cruise ship visitors.
The famous Parthenon temple, erected in honor of Athena, the patron goddess of the Greek city, is located on this site.
With up to 23,000 visitors every day during the summer, it saw a record four million visitors last year, up 31% from the year before. As a result, the organization in charge of overseeing the nation’s historic monuments had to implement scheduled visits.
The increase in tourists occurred while a severe heatwave in July forced the Acropolis to close for several days.
Greece’s center-right government has come under fire for allegedly attempting to expand private administration of the nation’s museums and historic sites, which generated over 120 million euros in revenue for the government in 2022.
A rule that made it easier to transmit priceless artifacts to be shown in international museum exhibitions was enacted by parliament in February 2023. Many archaeologists were against this reform because they believed it would pave the way for the long-term export of rare objects.
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