The Panathenaic Way was the main paved road of classical Athens. It entered the city at the Dipylon Gate, on the western edge of the city, and finished on the Acropolis in the centre of the city, approximately from the gate. Beyond the Dipylon Gate, it continued as far as the Academy, around outside the walls.
The Panthenaic Way ran through the Agora, the major civic and commercial centre of the city. John McK. Camp has suggested that the need for a space for festive activities along its route may have been a major factor in the establishment of the Agora as a large open square.
Structures along the Panathenaic Way included the Pompeion, constructed around 400 BCE immediately adjacent to the Dipylon Gate. This was the origin-point for festive processions, including that of the Great Panathenaia, in which a robe () intended for a statue of the goddess Athena on the Acropolis would be conveyed along the Panathenaic Way (a route known as the , or "track") as the sail of a wheeled wooden ship. Between 98 and 102 CE, the Library of Pantainos was built facing onto it, close to the Stoa of Attalos in the Agora. In the third century CE, part of the Post-Herulian Wall was constructed along the section of the Panathenaic Way between the Agora and the Acropolis.
During the Great Panathenaia, the Panathenaic Way formed the route run by torch-bearing racers between altars in the Academy and the Acropolis. Parts of it may have been used for athletic events from the sixth century BCE. A section at the northwest corner of the Agora was crossed by five limestone bases, dating approximately to the middle of the fifth century BCE, into which posts could be inserted to serve as the starting-posts for runners, perhaps as part of the running events during the Great Panathenaia. From at least 182/1 BCE, and probably long beforehand, equestrian races were held during the Panathenaia along the processional route of the Panathenaic Way, between the Dipylon Gate and the Eleusinion on the northern slope of the Acropolis. In 170/69 BCE and for around two decades afterwards, twelve races were held there in each festival, including the , which involved dismounting and remounting a moving chariot while wearing armour: Julia L. Shear comments that the steepness and narrowness of parts of the road created a high risk of "broken ankles, wrecked vehicles, or worse".