Stand at the real sites and watch ancient Athens rise around you, from the Parthenon in its glory to the grand halls of Hadrian's Library. A living reconstruction of the city, right where it stood, on your phone.
Try the appMost of ancient Athens is gone. A few standing columns, worn marble, foundations lost in the grass. Standing among the ruins today, it takes real imagination to picture the city that once filled this place.
TimeLens closes that gap. Working from careful historical research, we rebuild Athens exactly as it stood and set it back where it belongs. Stand at a site, raise your phone, and see the temples whole again, painted and alive, the squares full of people, the city restored in every direction around you.
What makes Athens special is its depth in time. From a single viewpoint on the Acropolis you can see the same place across three different eras, Classical, Roman and Ottoman, and witness how the city changed across more than two thousand years.
Each TimeSpot is a real place in Athens where you can stand and see the past restored in full, 360 degrees around you. Travel to a spot to unlock it, then look around the scene at your own pace. The map shows every Athens TimeSpot, and new ones are added as the city grows.
Make your way to one of the historic locations shown on the map. Once you arrive, it automatically unlocks the TimeSpot for you.
Hold up your phone and take in the scene in every direction. A 360-degrees historic reconstruction of the city full of life.
For each location you discover, you receive a badge and some TimeCoins as a reward. Discovering combinations of TimeSpots even gives you special awards.
Every reconstruction takes months of research and craft. A small amount each month helps us build more of them, and brings you along for the journey, with early previews, behind the scenes insights, and a say in which places we bring back next. You can even have your name featured in the app, or appear as a figure in a future scene.
Support us on PatreonFollow our newest reconstructions, fresh TimeSpots and the stories behind our work in Athens, as the project keeps growing.
Want to see more updates about TimeLens in other locations, check out all the other updates below.
There is a spot on the south slope of the Acropolis, still open to visitors today, where you would once have seen nothing at all. Just a long, curving wall of pale stone. No columns, no sculpture, not a single doorway.…
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Imagine standing in the Theatre of Dionysos in Athens, around 320 BCE. The stone seats climb the south slope of the Acropolis, packed with spectators. It is a festival of Dionysos, and on the stage below, one of the…
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Imagine standing on the Acropolis in Ottoman times, in the year 1805 to be specific. It is the very spot where, in our Classical reconstruction, the Panathenaic procession once reached the Parthenon in its painted…
Read MoreEvery Athens TimeSpot is created in collaboration with specialists in the city's history and architecture, so each scene rests on solid research rather than guesswork. We are grateful to Professor Chrysanthos Kanellopoulos for his expert guidance on ancient Athens, and to Dimitris Tsalkanis for the architectural reconstructions that bring each site back to life.
