It is amazing to visit the archaeological sites in Greece including the Acropolis, Delphi, Mycenae, Olympia and Epidaurus.  Here was the birthplace of classical architecture, with those fine proportions and the discipline of the Doric, Ionic and Corinthian orders that have inspired thousands of classical buildings across the world from Russia to England to the United States to Australia.  No one nation can claim to have had such influence and the remains of the original buildings, albeit ruined, are still there today, including the theatre at Epidaurus which is still in use today, with its perfect acoustics, several thousand years after it was originally constructed. 

Here too is the birthplace of the Olympic Games, with the original stadium at Olympia and the altar on which the flame was lit through magnification of sunlight, and still is lit today for all the modern games. 

Each of the archaeological sites has its own museum, though many of the most important treasures are in the National Archaeological Museum in Athens and the museums show how the temples and other buildings were originally highly coloured and decorated, not pure white as we see today and architects have tended to copy in their neo-classical architecture.

Proving that you have to have long term vision is the Corinth Canal, first envisaged by Julius Caesar and finally executed in the late 19th century, a marvel of engineering and still in use today.