Monday, December 20, 2010

Acropolis

No trip to Athens is complete without visiting the Acropolis. It is arguably the most important ancient monument in western history.


My ticket, it includes tickets to other archeological site.


Acropolis visitor route

Acropolis Rules

Enter through the Beule Gate, a Roman Arch added in the 3rd century AD.




The Temple of Hephaistos from my view in the Arcopolis.


There are stray dogs running around in Athens, including the Acropolis.



Perfect pillars. The ancient Greeks knew that to build pillars that looked straight to the human eye the columns had to be narrower towards the top and their bases curve upward at the ends.


The Parthenon, built in 438 BC. Amazing.


The Erechtheion and the Caryatids, the six maidens. The maidens here are not the originals, they are copies. The originals are in the Acropolis Museum.


The Erechtheion


Parthenon from behind


Parthenon from behind


The Temple of Zeus from my view at the Acropolis.

A cannon and cannon balls in the Acropolis? My guess is that it's left from when the Turks ruled Athens as part of the Ottoman Empire. The Turks took control of Athens in 1456 and the Parthenon became a Mosque. In 1683 Poland, the Vatican and Venice allied to take back European lands controlled by the Ottoman Empire. During this conflict the Parthenon was hit directly with a cannon ball in 1687.



Ancient Agora from my view at the Acropolis.

1 comment:

Keir said...

Looking at your blog has brought a lot of memories to the surface for me