National Garden of Athens

Queen Amalia ordered the garden in 1838 and reportedly spent three hours a day on it, importing some 500 species by ship and planting the avenue of Washingtonia palms that still runs through the middle. Fifteen and a half hectares of dense, deliberately tangled planting sit directly behind the parliament, with ponds of ducks and terrapins, a small duck-filled lake, ancient column drums and mosaic fragments placed among the beds, a sundial, and a botanical museum in a former greenhouse. There is a modest zoo of goats and birds that children find sufficient, a playground, and a cafe under the trees. The Zappeion Hall, a nineteenth-century exhibition building with a circular colonnaded courtyard, stands at the southern edge.

What you actually see

• The palm avenue - Amalia's Washingtonia palms crossing the garden.
• The ponds - terrapins, ducks and shaded benches.
• The scattered antiquities - column drums and mosaics among the planting.
• The Zappeion - the colonnaded hall at the garden's southern gate.

When to go

Any month; in July and August this is the one central space with real shade, which the city uses accordingly. Spring brings the citrus and jacaranda into flower. The garden closes at sunset.

Honest expectations

It is a nineteenth-century pleasure garden rather than a botanical showpiece: paths are informal, some corners are neglected, and the little zoo is basic. Signage is minimal and getting lost inside is part of the experience.

Nearby

Syntagma Square and the parliament are at the north gate; the Temple of Olympian Zeus and Plaka lie south and west.