The Temple of Athena Nike is the small temple on the right as you enter top of the Acropolis. It has Ionic columns and is fairly simple, but is well preserved. It is not the Erechtheion temple with the statues of the women. They are two different temples.

This is one of the first temples you see walking up onto the top of the Acropolis. It catches your eye because it is restored and looks very nice. It is set back and away, so people can't get close for pictures, but you can get a good one as you walk up or down the stairs.

The temple of Athena Nike is the smallest temple at the Acropolis. It is perched, almost like a doll’s house, at the edge of a high cliff. As you climb the stairs of the Propylaea (the monumental gateway to the Acropolis), the temple is high up on your right. It’s so small that it only has four columns at the front and back and none at all on the sides. Patron and protector of Athens, Athena in her Nike mode, symbolised victory. With Athena on their side, Athens was guaranteed victory in battle. A small altar allowed worshippers to place offerings, perform rituals and perhaps catch a glimpse of the large sculpture of Athena Nike that stood inside the temple. The temple was built in 420BC, by Kallikrates, the same architect responsible for the Parthenon). A one metre high marble balustrade was added 10 years later to prevent people from falling (we wondered how many people actually fell before this was added?). Large sections of the balustrade are on display at the Acropolis Museum. A continuous frieze ran around it, with highly detailed scenes of Athena Nike, the gods, Greek battles and sacrificial bulls and weapons being brought before Athena. Later we saw many of these beautiful (but damaged) panels at the Acropolis Museum. The one that caught my eye was showed the goddess adjusting her sandal, or perhaps taking her sandals off to enter the sacred temple area. TICKET TIP: I’d highly recommend buying the combo ticket. At €30, it is excellent value. It lasts for 5 days and includes entry to 7 ancient sites. Entry to the Acropolis on its own is €20 so if it is your first time to Athens, it makes sense to buy this ticket (unless you’re here in winter when many sites are half price).

The area around this temple gets very crowded due to the bottleneck in this area as you walk up the Acropolis area. We would recommend getting in when the Acropolis site opens at 8:30 am and enjoying this first as it is likely the first site you will see. We found when we went the crowd dispersed a bit around the Parthenon and there were plenty of picture opportunities but the Temple of Nike area stayed consistently crowded. Entry for the Acropolis includes the Nike Temple and a number of temples at the Acropolis. In low season the cost to enter is 10 euros and it is 20 in high season. There is also a combo ticket so you can go see other sites outside the Acropolis but we didn't feel it was worth it because the other sites close around 3 pm and we didn't want to be rushed. We would recommend bringing good shoes to walk around, a water bottle because there isn't a place to fill up when we went, use the bathroom before entering and put on some sunscreen because it is very exposed up there. We would say 2-3 hours in the area is perfect.

Much smaller in comparison to the Parthenon but still significant and worth battling through the tour groups to see. However, as with all sights at the top of the Acropolis, good luck with getting that moment and space to take a good look and even a photo! Same rules, get there early, go off season etc.

The Temple of Athena Nike is a small temple which is on the right as you look up at the entrance to the Acropolis. It was the first fully Ionic temple to be built on the Acropolis, the Ionic order were responsible for the temple of Artemis in Ephesus. You won't miss it on your trip to the Acropolis.