Greece Begins Limiting Visitors to the Acropolis After Tourists Overwhelm 2,400-Year-Old Landmark

The Greek government has begun limiting visitors to the Athens Acropolis in an effort to assuage the massive crowds that flock to the landmark.

Visitors to the archeological site will be capped at 20,000 per day, according to a CNN report, and will be required to use a booking website that monitors daily traffic and implements an hourly scheduling system.

The Acropolis receives up to 23,000 daily visitors, according to Greece’s Minister of Culture and Sports Lina Mendoni.

Most visitors have chosen to visit the site in the morning, making for “unpleasant conditions for the site, the visitors and the staff who are trying to accommodate this high volume of people,” Mendoni said in an August radio interview, according to CNN.

The metering system went into effect Monday on a trial basis, but Greek officials intend to officially adopt it for the Acropolis and other Greek archeological sites starting in April 2024.

The Acropolis, which includes the Parthenon temple, was built in the fifth century BC.