AS WE emerged in front of the Parthenon after a winding climb up the Acropolis in Athens, my five-year-old daughter exclaimed: “Not another ruin, Daddy!” Only a small child, complete Philistine or somebody exhausted after exploring Greece’s hundreds of ancient buildings could utter such a remark when confronted with a stunning edifice that has survived from the 5th century BC.

And we had not even done Delphi or Olympia on our leisurely tour through the country. We had visited a dozen sites, from small temples to sprawling cities, and some of these had met with Tina’s approval, especially the 3rd century BC theatre at Epidaurus.

She sat patiently in the 60th and back row of the semicircular auditorium, listening to the whispers of a couple on the stage far below and waiting for her turn to sing to an imagined full house of 12,300. The excellent acoustics, fine state of preservation and setting on a hillside amid pine trees make the theatre one of the most perfect places in the Ancient World.

Epidaurus is also renowned for the sanctuary of Asclepius, with the remains of a temple to the son of Apollo, the circular base and foundations of a tholos, the grid pattern of a large guesthouse and a more easily identifiable stadium.

At the heart of an eastern peninsula of the Peloponnese, Epidaurus is the last stop on the most popular excursion from Athens, which crosses the sheer-sided chasm of the Corinth Canal to reach ancient Corinth.

The city owed its importance to its position close to the isthmus between the Corinthian and Saronic Gulfs and reached its apogee in the 5th century BC. The most imposing remains are the temple of Apollo with seven standing columns and the Lower Fountain of Peirene, backed by six rooms with arched entrances. Every site has a museum but this is one not to be missed because of its beautifully decorated vases and statuettes.

A short drive beyond Corinth is the fabulous city of Mycenae, birthplace of the Mycenaean civilisation that lasted from 1600BC to 1100BC. Its most photographed feature is the Lion Gate, the entrance to the city, which was built on a triangular hill. The gate is made of monolithic bricks, with the threshold and lintel each weighing 20 tons and above them two carved lions, facing each other with their forepaws on an altar. A steep, once majestic road beyond the gate, climbs to the remains of the palace on the summit. The surrounding houses were occupied by state officials.

The hill – or acropolis – was enclosed by cyclopean walls and the other city inhabitants lived outside them.

Founded, according to legend, by Perseus, the city is better known for another hero, Agamemnon, and his awesome tomb is built into the hillside. The entrance is surmounted by a lintel block weighing 120 tons with the huge domed tomb beyond. The sheer scale of Mycenae and the sense of magic and history left me, let alone Tina, exhausted. Now we need to summon up our strength to visit the Oracle at Delphi and the site of the first Panhellenic Games at Olympia.