Things to do in Laurium

Lavrio sits on the southeast coast of Attica, an hour from Athens and ten kilometres up the road from Cape Sounion. It is an industrial town, not a pretty one. Its history is silver.

The mines here are why classical Athens could afford a navy. A rich vein was struck in 483 BC, and Themistocles argued the windfall into two hundred triremes rather than a handout. Three years later that fleet won at Salamis.

Tens of thousands of slaves worked the shafts and washeries. Cisterns, ore-washing tables and slag heaps still lie in the scrub above the town. Nobody charges to walk among them.

The second industrial town

The mines came back in the 1860s, when a French company began reworking the ancient slag. What it left is unusual for Greece. A stone company town of workshops, offices and chimneys still stands, now a technology park run by the Athens polytechnic.

Most things to do in Lavrio follow from that.

• The Mineralogical Museum. In an old ore-washing plant. The Lavreotiki has produced hundreds of mineral species, many first described here.
• Thorikos. Above the port, with one of the oldest theatres in Greece. The orchestra is an oval rather than a circle.
• The archaeological museum. Finds from the mines and the Bronze Age settlements around them.
• The waterfront. A short row of fish tavernas facing the yachts, with almost no tourists in them.

The port, and why it is not Piraeus

Lavrio is the third Athens port, after Piraeus and Rafina. It is far smaller. It serves Kea, Kythnos and the western Cyclades, a different set of islands from the big terminal.

The real advantage is the airport. Lavrio is about half an hour from the terminal, quicker than the run into central Athens. For anyone flying in and sailing straight out, that changes the arithmetic.

Practical

• No rail. No line reaches Lavrio. From here it is the KTEL bus, a taxi or a car.
• Buses. KTEL from Pedion tou Areos takes about ninety minutes. With luggage, take a transfer.
• Wind. The Kea channel is short but exposed, and the western Cyclades routes are among the first cancelled in a meltemi.
• Staying. Little reason to sleep here unless you have a boat to catch. Rooms are cheap for the same reason.
• Walking the mines. The workings are open, unfenced and dangerous in places. The hills are dry scrub with no water, so go in the morning.
• Eating. Fish on the waterfront, at the price Athenians pay rather than the coast road price.
• Combining. Sounion is a quarter of an hour down the coast.