During his period as Ephor General between 1885 and 1909, Kavvadias's main project was the excavation and subsequent restoration of the Acropolis of Athens. Until 1890, in collaboration with the German archaeologist and architect , he excavated or re-excavated almost the whole site, removing nearly all of its remaining post-Classical structures and discovering dozens of works of ancient sculpture, particularly Archaic . After 1890, the work on the Acropolis primarily consisted of restoration, particularly of the Parthenon, Erechtheion and Propylaia, overseen by Nikolaos Balanos, who directed the project largely independently.
