The National Garden is the green heart of central Athens, a 15-hectare park stretching south from the Parliament building behind Syntagma to the Panathenaic Stadium. Queen Amalia commissioned the garden in 1838 — Athens's first public park — and her gardeners planted Mediterranean species from across Greece and the Levant.
Wander in for the shade alone on a hot day. The garden has a small pond with ducks, an open-air café, several Roman fragments scattered between the trees, and a small botanical museum. Children come for the ramshackle little zoo at the far end. The southern exit leads to the Zappeion exhibition hall and the entrance to the Panathenaic Stadium.