Acropolis of Athens brief description. History of the Athenian Acropolis and description of its attractions
is the heart and main tourist attraction of Athens and Greece. Clearly visible from all sides (construction is prohibited
high-rise buildings so as not to block the view of Acropolis) it serves as an excellent landmark for moving around the city.
Annually Acropolis of Athens visited by millions of tourists and travelers from all over the world.
Acropolis translated from ancient Greek as a fortified place in the city.
The Acropolis is the oldest inhabited place in Athens. Already during the Archaic period, there were majestic temples and sculptures here, which later generations of Greeks considered the heritage of the Cyclops. IN Mycenaean period(15 -13 century BC) Acropolis was the royal residence.
It was here that the residence of the legendary Theseus(the conqueror of the Minotaur), unless, of course, his personality was mythical.
During the Greco-Persian Wars Acropolis was completely destroyed by the Persians. The inhabitants of Athens swore an oath to restore the shrines only after the victory over the Persians and the expulsion of enemies from Hellas. In 447 BC. under the direction of the famous sculptor Acropolis new construction has begun. , the Temple of Nike, the Erechtheion - these are the masterpieces that we enjoy to this day.
Bule Gate
This gate is named after the French architect Ernest Bühle, who excavated the Acropolis in 1825. This is one of the two Acropolis gates that were built into the fortress walls after the Heruli raid in 267.
Sanctuary of Aphrodite Pandemos
To the right of the Bule Gate are ruins of the temple of Aphrodite. At present, all that remains of the temple is the architrave decorated with garlands and doves.
Sanctuary of Artemis Bravronia
This temple was located in eastern part of the Acropolis, not far from the ruins of the Mycenaean walls. The temple was a Dorian colonnade with two wings in the shape of a “U”. The creation of the temple is attributed to Pisistratus, who came from the region of Brauronia,
Where cult of Artemis was widespread. In the side wings of the temple colonnade were kept two statues of the goddess: the first was an ancient wooden statue depicting the goddess sitting on a throne, and the second, which was a creation sculptor Praxiteles.
Chalkoteca
East of the Temple of Artemis was Chalkoteca, a building that was used to store metal objects related to the cult goddess Athena. The building was built in the mid-5th century BC, and reconstruction of the building was carried out during the Roman period.
On the southern slope of the Acropolis is the oldest known theater, - Theater of Dionysus(god of winemaking). According to legend, the inhabitants of Athens killed Dionysus when he arrived in Attica and gave wine to people for the first time, thinking that Dionysus was trying to poison them. Then they came to their senses and began to celebrate Dionysia very vigorously - festivals in
the honor of the god they killed. In the end, this all led to the creation of the theater. It was in this theater that masterpieces were first shown Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides and Aristophanes.
In the 6th century BC. ruler of Athens tyrant Peisistratus introduced the cult of Dionysus into Athens and organized the Great Dionysia, which was held during March–April. Around the same time in Athens a poet appeared Thespis, a native of the demos of Ikaria. He introduced the first actor to Dionysia and began to write the texts that he should
was read by the actor and choir members. Before Thespis, these texts were pure improvisation of the choristers. Thespis also began to devote texts not only to life events Dionysus, but also to other heroes of Greek mythology and real historical characters. Acting masks were also invented and introduced, since one and the same
the actor had to play many roles.
In the 4th century BC, during the reign of Lycurgus, the wooden spectator rows were replaced with stone ones and have not changed since then. The stage of the theater was reconstructed many times.
The theater has 78 rows of spectators, which are divided by a passage into two zones. The passage is also part of the Peripata - the path that surrounds the sacred rock Acropolis.
The front rows of marble spectators, 67 seats, were intended in ancient times for rulers, archons and priests. In the center of the front rows is the throne of the chief priest of the temple of Dionysus Eleftheria.
Romans The theater was changed twice. Once during the reign of Emperor Nero, in the 1st century AD, and again during the reign of Phaedrus, in the 3rd century AD.
The friezes that can be seen today on the proscenium of the theater depict scenes from the myths of Dionysus. The first frieze depicts the birth of the god: seated Zeus, and in front of him Hermes with the baby Dionysus in their arms, along the edges of Kurita they dance a war dance with weapons in their hands. Then depicted Icarus, sacrificing a goat to Dionysus, and
on the right is Dionysus alone with his friend Satyr.
Temple of Augustus
Not far from the eastern entrance to the Parthenon was Temple of Roma andAugusta. The temple was built in 27 BC. when Octavian received the title of Augustus. It was a small round temple with a diameter of 8.50 meters and 9 Ionic columns. At the foot of the columns there was an inscription that said that the temple was dedicated to Roma and
Augustus from the grateful Athenians.
Sanctuary of Zeus Polyaeus
To the northeast of the Parthenon are ruins of the Temple of Zeus. It consisted of a quadrangular fence, inside of which there was a separate fenced area with a small temple and a hall of gifts. In the temple in honor Zeus The ritual of Diipoly was carried out.
At the entrance to Acropolis There is also the Theater of Herod Attica. Tiberius Claudius Herod Atticus was one of the wealthiest Athenian citizens and also the Roman governor of the province of Asia. Among other things, he was a famous philosopher and a teacher Marcus Aurelius.
In 161 AD. in memory of his wife he built Odeon(theater) in
Athens. This is a perfectly preserved example of Roman architecture in Athens.
The theater had a stage 35.4 meters long, built on two floors and was
covered with white and black marble slabs from the Karista quarries.
The theater's capacity was up to 5,000 people. The roof of the theater was made of cedar wood.
The theater premises were rebuilt and today the theater hosts Athens Festival, where the best theaters in the world present their art to the audience.
Copper statue of Athena
On the territory of the Acropolis there were many gifts and offerings from various cities and ordinary residents. Was especially valuable statueAthens. The statue was installed between Erechtheion and Propylaea and was 9 meters high. According to Pausanias, the spearhead of the statue and the shine of its helmet were visible to ships that sailed from Cape Sounion to Piraeus.
Odeon of Pericles
East of the Theater of Dionysus was the famous Odeon of Pericles, built in 447 BC. and intended for music competitions. The Odeon was destroyed during the storming of the Acropolis by Sulla's legions in 86 BC. and restored by the king of Capadocia, Ariobarzanes II. Finally Pericles Theater was destroyed by the Heruls in 267 BC.
Between the Theater of Dionysus and the Odeon of Herod of Attica there is a colonnade
Euminius II(king of Pergamon), which was built in the 2nd century BC. as a gift to the Athenians. In ancient times, the colonnade had a roof and was used by residents as a promenade for walking.
In the 5th century, with the advent of Christianity, it became the Church of Our Lady. After the conquest of Greece by the Turks, the temple was turned into a mosque, and then into an arsenal. was dismantled.
In 1687, after a cannonball hit a Venetian ship, an explosion destroyed almost the entire central part, and in addition, during an unsuccessful attempt by the Venetians to remove the Parthenon sculptures, several statues were broken.
In the 19th century, the friezes and remaining Parthenon statues were taken to England, where they can be seen in British Museum.
Acropolis Museum
Museum Acropolis was opened in 1878. Initially, the museum building was located in a small room immediately behind the Parthenon.
The museum's collection consists of exhibits that were found during archaeological excavations Acropolis.
Its treasures include surviving parts of the Parthenon friezes as well as sculptures by Greek masters from the 5th century BC.
Museum exhibits displayed in chronological order. These are pediment sculptures of temples Acropolis with images of the battle of gods with giants, scenes of Hercules fighting with various mythical creatures, as well as a sculpture of Moschophoros, or a young man carrying a calf on his shoulders (570 BC)
Among the museum's exhibits is a well-preserved metope from the southern facade of the Parthenon, depicting the battle of the Lapiths with the centaurs. The pearls of the museum are originals of the Caryatids from the southern portico of the Erechtheion. The statues are stored in a room with a special temperature regime.
Reminder for tourists
Acropolis Open daily from 8am to 6:30pm.
Acropolis opening hours may vary slightly depending on
season. On Acropolis It is forbidden to bring any bags (they can be left at the entrance to the Acropolis)
The entrance ticket costs 12 euros, but with this ticket you can also visit Agora and Temple of Zeus.
Acropolis on the map of Athens
History of the Acropolis
According to legend, the founder of Athens and the Upper City was the half-man, half-snake Kekrops. It was he who preferred the goddess of wisdom as a patroness and erected the first temples in her honor. In subsequent centuries, more magnificent structures appeared on their ruins, until all the buildings of the Acropolis, with the exception of the fragmentarily surviving temple of Hekatompedon, were destroyed by the Persians in the 5th century. During the time of Pericles and immediately after his death, the hill was decorated with the best works of ancient architecture - the Parthenon and the Erechtheion.
During the era of early Hellenism and the subjugation of Greece to Rome, several theaters appeared at the foot of the hill. Christians turned pagan temples into Christian ones, without rebuilding them, but partially changing the interiors. The Turks who came to the Balkans in the 15th century used the buildings of the Athens Acropolis as mosques. Significant changes did not occur on the hill until the Venetians bombarded the city with cannons in the 17th century. Many temples were destroyed, and their reconstruction, requiring enormous costs, has not yet been completed.
In the 19th century, some of the sculptures that decorated the facades of temples were exported to France and Great Britain, and the dispute about their ownership is still ongoing today.
Architectural features of the Athens Acropolis
The hill area was developed gradually, new buildings were erected on the ruins or unfinished foundations of the previous ones. Work was frozen for decades due to lack of funds. In general, even in ancient times, the hill was almost always a construction site. The oldest surviving objects of the Athenian Acropolis, such as the Parthenon, were made at the end of the dominance of the strict Doric order with massive columns in architecture. In buildings close to them in time, for example in the Propylaea, along with Doric ones, elements of a more decorative Ionic style are already evident. The later Erechtheion is an example of the Ionic architectural order.
The Parthenon is the most important temple of Ancient Athens
The central, highest point of the panorama of the Acropolis is the Parthenon Temple, dedicated to Athena, the patroness of the city. This is the pinnacle of creativity of the architect Iktin, who acted, however, not alone, but with a team of like-minded people. The material for the temple was white marble mined nearby, which acquired a golden glow in the sunlight. These features of the stone have become noticeable now, but in ancient times the temple and all the statues were painted in bright colors - red, blue, yellow.
All work, from the creation of the project to the decoration of the Parthenon, was carried out under Pericles, from 447 to 432. BC e. According to the architects, the temple on the Acropolis of Athens was supposed to surpass all that existed previously. Formally, this is a rectangular building, resting on three marble steps and surrounded along the perimeter by a colonnade more than 10 m high. People entered the temple through the western entrance with low steps. What tourists see today are steps with columns.
The merit of the architects is that they put the laws of optics at the service of architecture. The columns widen in the center, the corner columns and the floor are located at an angle - all this gives the observer a feeling of strict straightness. In addition, thanks to the architects’ tricks, the Parthenon looks strictly proportional from any point of view – both from the territory of the Lower City and when approaching it.
Sculptures of Phidias
The giant, 13-meter statue of Athena, which has not survived to this day, was prepared for the temple by Phidias, the author of one of the wonders of the world - the statue of Olympian Zeus. The wooden figure of an armed warrior goddess, according to historians, was decorated with precious stones, ivory and gold. This is indirectly evidenced by the found records containing builders' reports on the purchased materials - in total, about a ton of metal was spent on the statue. The approximate appearance of the warrior has been restored thanks to copies made in antiquity, one of which is kept in the National Museum of Athens. The goddess in a long robe and helmet rested on a shield with her left hand, and with her right hand extended to the audience she held a figurine of winged Nike.
In addition to the Athena Parthenos, the master, together with his students, made relief metope slabs for the Parthenon frieze. Some of them were taken to Great Britain by Lord Elgin in the 19th century and are now exhibited in the British Museum, in a huge separate room, decorating the marble walls at eye level of visitors. Quite recently, a visiting exhibition of the collection took place in the St. Petersburg Hermitage - an unprecedented case, since until now the Parthenon sculptures had not been exported anywhere. Greece is suing Great Britain in the hope of returning the artifacts to their homeland, since permission to export them was given not by the Greeks themselves, but by the Turks, under whose yoke the country was. However, there is also something to see in Greece: more than 40 original slabs have been preserved here. The pediment sculptures, unlike the reliefs, almost did not survive and have survived to this day only in fragments.
Further history of the Parthenon
The temple was partially damaged by fire in antiquity, then, in the 6th century, after the final decline of Athens, it became a Christian church dedicated to the Virgin Mary. When altered for the needs of the cult, the statues and interior of the Parthenon were damaged, and wall paintings appeared in place of the previous decor. Under the Turks, starting from the 15th century, the building served as a mosque. All this time the temple was in relative safety, until in 1687 the Venetians, in another conflict with the Turks, fired at it, provoking destruction. Decorative details were partially exported outside the country. At the end of the 19th century, restoration work began, which has not been completed to this day.
Erechtheion - memory of the legendary king
Temples were built not only in honor of the gods, but in memory of mortals. This honor was given to King Erechtheus, who, according to legend, was buried in these places. According to another opinion, it was at this point of the Athenian Acropolis, where in 421-406. BC e. The Erechtheion appeared, Athena and Poseidon argued for supremacy in the region. As you know, Athena whitewashed it, but the temple was dedicated to both, just in case. Erechtheus, who ruled Athens, was also no stranger to the gods: he died at the behest of the angry Poseidon. The picturesque multi-level ruins of the Erechtheion are located north of the Parthenon. The building is made of several types of marble - snow-white Parian, golden-white Pentelic and grayish Eleusinian.
Unlike the outwardly rectilinear, majestic Parthenon, the Erechtheion consists of parts of different heights. The reason lies in the unevenness of the soil - the architect had to overcome the features of the relief. Mnesicles took up the matter: earlier he had already justified the trust of Pericles by building the entrance gate to the Acropolis - the Propylaea. In order not to offend the gods, the architect wisely divided the space of the temple: Athena got the eastern part, Poseidon and Erechtheus - the western. The southern portico of the Erechtheion is supported by caryatids - figures of women that replaced columns. Today, copies of the statues are installed at the site of the work of ancient sculptors; the originals are kept in the Acropolis Museum and the British Museum.
The history of the Erechtheion follows the path of the Parthenon: the building survived Christianization and the invasion of the Turks, but was destroyed in the fight against the Venetians. Subsequently, the Italians tried to put the parts together like a construction set, so that the general outlines of the temple were restored, but the impression of devastation still remained.
Propylaea – the main gate of the complex
Tourists enter the Acropolis of Athens through the western gate, the Propylaea. The six massive Doric columns of the central part of the entrance are reminiscent of the Parthenon, the main part of which was completed at the time of construction. The side Ionic columns, lighter and more decorative, relieve the feeling of tension. There was once an art gallery and library adjacent to the gate - archaeologists managed to find traces of them and recreate their outlines in three-dimensional models. Now the general gate complex has been largely restored, the destroyed columns have been replaced with copies.
Temple of Nike Apteros
In front of the main gate there is a small temple with four Ionic columns with spiral scrolls at the top, along the edges of the porticoes. The sanctuary was designed to guard the entrance to the Acropolis. There once stood a statue of Athena inside, whose usual companion was Nike, the goddess of victory. Usually she was depicted as winged, but this temple is an exception; it is no coincidence that its patroness received the name Apteros - “wingless”. The reason for this deviation from the canons, according to legend, is considered to be a small cunning of the Athenians. They deprived Victory of its wings so that it would never fly out of the city.
The temple was erected during the Peloponnesian War, so the building was decorated with reliefs depicting the victories of the inhabitants of Attica over the Persians and Spartans for further inspiration. The Turks dismantled the temple for building materials to build fortifications against the Venetians. Today's temple was restored much later; the original sculptures were given to the New Museum. The active phase of work has not been completed, so the Nika Temple is often closed to visitors.
Destroyed objects
Several other objects have been preserved in the Acropolis in the form of remnants of foundations or shapeless ruins. In the eastern part of the complex is the sanctuary of Pandion, presumably named after the legendary king of Attica. Between the Parthenon and the Erechtheion is the Hekatompedon, the most ancient temple of the Athenian Acropolis. A hundred years before the appearance of the Parthenon, it was the main sanctuary of the patroness of the city, Athens. What remained of it were the bases of columns discovered during excavations and limestone sculptures that preserved remnants of paint. To the right of the Propylaea are the modest ruins of the sanctuary of Artemis and a weapons depot. Behind the Erechtheion was the sanctuary of Pandrosa with the altar of Zeus and an olive tree planted by Athena herself. Nearby was a tiny building in which noble girls worked, weaving peplos, women's outer clothing, for the statue of Athena for the Panathenaic Games, Attica's largest competition.
Tourist routes around the Acropolis
It is difficult for a tourist not experienced in archeology and architecture to understand the ancient Greek ruins: at first glance, all the ruins are similar to each other, periods and styles are mixed. To avoid getting lost, you can choose simple landmarks. The main gate from the west is the Propylaea, the modest temple in front of it is the Sanctuary of Nike. The largest rectangular cluster of columns visible in all directions is the Parthenon. A smaller building, harmoniously combining columns of different heights and porticos decorated with female figures, is the Erechtheion. You can walk along the Athens Acropolis even at night - objects are illuminated by powerful spotlights.
New Acropolis Museum
The Athens Acropolis Museum, which housed decorative fragments of buildings in the Upper City, was opened in 1874. Over time, the collection grew so large that the existing rooms and storerooms were not enough to store objects. The new building, significantly larger in size than the old one, had to be located near the Acropolis. The misadventures with the project began in the 70s of the twentieth century and lasted until the end of the century: either the Greek authorities could not find suitable architects, or the land plot did not withstand any criticism. Finally, builders began digging the ground for the foundation and discovered new archaeological finds. Work in this place was frozen until the architects proposed a project that did not affect the ground layer.
The three-level complex was opened in 2009, 300 m south of the complex, next to the Acropolis metro station. Its ground floor is supported by a hundred columns, and the glass floor allows visitors to admire the excavations underfoot. The glass walls offer a fantastic view of the Acropolis. There is a cafe on the ground floor, a souvenir shop and a bookstore on two levels. During the tourist season, the museum welcomes guests from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., on Fridays until 10 p.m., on Mondays until 4 a.m., and in winter it operates on a reduced schedule. Ticket price for adults is 5 euros.
Tourist information
The largest number of tourists come to Athens from April to October, although the Acropolis welcomes guests all year round. Inspecting the complex will take about two hours; you need to plan it early in the morning, around 8, until the marble warms up under the sun. In the evening it is still hot until 6 o’clock; the main flow of organized tourists leaves before 15 o’clock. Be sure to take drinking water with you and choose non-slip shoes without heels.
A ticket to view the Athens Acropolis with theaters lying on the slopes of the hill and the nearby Agora and the Temple of Zeus costs 12 euros. It is difficult to see all the sights at once, so a ticket for one visit to each site is valid for 4 days. There is usually a queue near the ticket office of the Acropolis; you can avoid it if you buy a ticket near another historical monument from the list. On Museum Night in May and European Heritage Days in September, admission to the complex is free.
How to get there
There are several public transport stops near the Acropolis. The most convenient way to get off is at the metro station of the same name on the M2 line, next to which there is an interchange hub for trams and buses. A little further to the south there is a tram stop 1, 5, 15. From the south there is bus number 230. An electric train takes guests from the metro and from the Acropolis Museum to the ticket office.
Holidays and festivals at the Acropolis
A spectacular summer and part of the autumn, the Athens Festival chose as one of its main venues the Odeon of Herodes, a perfectly preserved theater built in 165 AD. e. Permanent access to it is closed; visitors get inside only during concert events with tickets. The theater's capacity is about 5,000 spectators.
The same fate awaits the Theater of Dionysus, located on the eastern side of the southern slope of the Acropolis. During the heyday of Attica, competitions between comedians and tragedies were held here; under the Romans, gladiators fought there. During the reconstruction process, it is planned to strengthen the remaining stone tiers and add several more rows of spectators to them.
Hotels in the vicinity of the Acropolis
Hotels in the Acropolis area are expensive, but you need to book rooms well in advance of your trip due to high demand. Next to the New Museum is the 4-star Herodion, and to the southeast is The Athens Gate Hotel, which has earned excellent reviews from guests. The 4-star apart-hotel AVA Hotel and Suites to the east of the hill will cost tourists about one and a half times more than a hotel with rooms.
Restaurants and cafes near the Acropolis
In addition to the museum cafe, you can grab a bite to eat at several restaurants along the perimeter of the hill. To the southwest of the Propylaea, at the foot of the semi-wild Hill of the Muses park, next to bus route 230 stop, the Dionysos restaurant is located with magnificent views of the Acropolis from the summer veranda. A little to the east is the national cuisine restaurant “Strofi”. On the north side of the hill is the Stamatopoulos tavern, opened in 1882. The cramped Clepsydra cafe is located on a narrow street with graffiti on the walls. Not far from it is “Anafiotika” with live music.
Attractions in the vicinity of the Acropolis
The main historical attractions of Athens are concentrated in the Acropolis area. In the east are the ruins of the Temple of Olympian Zeus, or rather, one corner of it, the perfectly preserved Temple of Hephaestus and the remains of the masonry of the market square-agora in the north-west. To the west is the Areopagus, a rocky hill where the authorities of Athens met.
This is the elevated part or the so-called upper city. Fortifications were built here, where citizens could hide in case of attacks, and, of course, the most important temples were built here. All ancient Greek cities had acropolises, but the most famous is the Acropolis of Athens, rising 150 meters above the main city.
The Acropolis towers over all of Athens, its silhouette shaping the skyline of the city. Rising above the hill in ancient times could be seen from any part of Attica and even from the islands of Salamis and Aegina; The sailors approaching the shore could already see from afar the shine of the spear and helmet of Athena the Warrior.
The Acropolis is one of those places that are said to be magnificent and delightful. It is considered to be a miracle that has survived to this day, even despite the fact that all the buildings are extremely laconic in their form, and the entire Acropolis can be walked in an hour.
The walls of the Acropolis are steep and precipitous. Previously, there was a huge amount of valuables and various sculptures inside. Nowadays only four great structures can be found inside the Acropolis.
History of the Acropolis
Construction of the Acropolis began in the 2nd century BC. But during the Greco-Persian wars it was completely destroyed. It stood in a terrible state for almost a century.
By the middle of the 5th century BC, Athens became the most prosperous city in Hellas, an economic and cultural center. It reached a special peak during the reign of Pericles. On his initiative, the city began to be decorated with all kinds of buildings. In 449, the grandiose reconstruction of the Acropolis was completed.
The Athenian Acropolis was built, as they say, on a grand scale. It is impossible to capture it at one glance. Of course, today only a small part has survived from that ancient structure, but even now it is worthy of admiration. First, it’s worth getting acquainted with the Acropolis that existed under the ancient Greeks.
There was only one entrance to the Acropolis, along a narrow road located on the western side. This entrance is through the Propylaea Gate, built by the architect Mnesicles in 437 - 432 BC. The gate was decorated with a wide staircase and two porticoes, one of which faces the hill and the other faces the city. Once upon a time, the ceilings of the Propylaea were painted with golden stars against a blue sky.
The Propylaea is surrounded by the walls of the Temple of the Wingless Nike. A small building with 4 columns. This temple was designed back in 450 BC, but construction could only begin in 427. It was built over 6 years. In ancient times, inside the temple there was a wooden statue of the goddess of victory. Traditionally, Nike was depicted as a girl with a pair of wings, but the ancient Greeks depicted her without wings so that victory would not “fly away” from them.
Entering through the gate, one could immediately see the statue of Athena, erected in 456 - 445 by the sculptor Phidias. Athena was depicted with a shield in her left hand and a spear in her right, and she had a military helmet on her head. The height of the statue was 7 meters, and the spear was even more - 9 meters.
To the left of the statue of Athena was a temple. It was dedicated to Athena, Poseidon and King Erechtheus. It was in this temple that the most valuable things were kept, in particular, a wooden statue of a warrior goddess, which, according to legend, fell from the sky; the sacred peplos, which was woven by the priestesses, the altars of Ifestus and Erechtheus.. The most important rituals were performed in this temple.
The Erichtheion Temple was small in size (23 by 11 meters), but it united several sanctuaries at once. The height of the temple was uneven: the western part of the building was 3 meters lower than the eastern side. This is because the temple was built on an uneven surface.
The internal space was divided into two parts. On the western side was the sanctuary of the Erechtheion, and on the eastern side was the sanctuary of Pallas Athena. The sculptural decoration of the temple was very rich. Along the entire perimeter there were friezes, the theme of which was myths.
In front of the western facade of the temple there was a sacred olive tree, but it was cut down and the temple itself was destroyed.
In the center of the Acropolis was the Parthenon, also dedicated to the goddess Athena. It was built over a period of 9 years (447 - 438 BC). Its architects were Ictinus and Callicrates. The Parthenon was a rectangular building measuring 70 by 31 meters, surrounded on all sides by columns - 17 on the longitudinal sides and 8 columns on the end parts of the temple.
The Parthenon is richly decorated with various sculptural elements created by prominent masters of the ancient world (Phidias, Alkamenes, Agoracritus, Callimachus). The popular idea that Greek temples always had colors is actually wrong. In ancient times, the Parthenon was very colorful, and according to modern tastes, it was even almost clumsily painted. Of course, over time the paint fades, so the temples that have survived to this day are exclusively white.
The interior of the Parthenon was divided into two parts. The first part is the cella, where the 12-meter statue of Athena, created by Phidias, was located. Athena was wearing a luxurious helmet and festive elegant clothes. Phidias made the goddess's face and hands from ivory, and her clothes were covered with gold plates.
The second room was intended for girls-priestesses who worked on making the sacred vestments of the goddess.
Modern Acropolis
The modern Acropolis bears little resemblance to the one that existed many centuries ago. Modern tourists can get to the site where the Propylaea is located through the Bayle Gate, built in the Roman-Byzantine era. They received their name in honor of the archaeologist Beile, who in 1853 discovered them under the remains of a Turkish fortification. Directly in front of the entrance are the ruins of the Temple of the Wingless Nike, which was destroyed by the Turks when they captured the city. In the middle of the 19th century, when Turkish rule was removed, they tried to restore the temple, but it was no longer possible to make it the same as before.
A lot of things in the Acropolis were irretrievably destroyed. For example, the statue of Athena the warrior was taken to Constantinople, where it was destroyed in the 13th century.
The Erechtheion Temple suffered repeatedly from robbers, especially during the Greek struggle for independence in 1821-1827. Only in 1906 did they begin to reconstruct the temple, restoring it on the preserved foundation.
The Parthenon was converted into a Christian temple in the 13th century. During the Turkish War, the Parthenon was shelled. The main room and colonnade were completely destroyed. Nowadays it has been partially restored, but its former grandeur has already been lost.
Of course, the modern Acropolis is not so majestic, but even today it is one of the most beautiful structures on our planet. Much has been destroyed, or even completely destroyed. But something has been preserved and still attracts tourists to Athens.
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Each polis of Ancient Greece had its own Acropolis, but none of them can surpass Athens in scale, layout and concentration of so many monuments of past eras.
The capital of Greece is simply unthinkable without it; it is rightfully considered its calling card, a real mecca for tourists from all over the world. Here time stands still, frozen in the impeccable elegance of architectural forms. Everything here looks majestic and amazes with its scope and monumentality, testifying to the high level of development of the culture of the ancient Greeks and remaining a model of world architecture for centuries.
Initially, there was an imperial palace on the Acropolis hill, and in the 7th century BC large-scale reconstruction began and the foundation of the first and most significant temple, the Parthenon, was laid. It amazes not only with its size, but also with its special layout - it can be seen in volume. If you look at the building from the central gate, three walls appear simultaneously. The secret is that the columns of the Parthenon are located at a certain angle to each other, which also determines a number of other interesting architectural features. And the main decoration of the temple was the statue of Athena, made of ivory and gold. Around the 5th century BC, it was taken to Constantinople, where it was burned in a fire.
Acropolis
No less grandiose is the Erechtheinon, built on the site where the legendary dispute between Poseidon and Athena took place. Here, in the sanctuary of Pandora, an olive branch was kept and a spring of sea water flowed. In addition, the temple has famous sculptures of the Caryatids - six beauties that replace the columns of the temple, many friezes and mosaics that have been preserved in some places.
The temple of the goddess Nike also stands out among others, which, according to legend, the Athenians left without wings so that she would not fly away from them, and victory was always theirs. This is a truly legendary place - it was here that Aegeus waited for his son Theseus, and in a fit of uncontrollable despair he jumped into the sea. And very close by is the ancient Theater of Dionysus, where Aristophanes and Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides presented their dramas and comedies.
Previously, one could enter the Acropolis through a huge gate - the Propylaea, which is a masterpiece of architectural art and was called the “brilliant face of the Acropolis.”
One of the parts of these gates housed the world's first art gallery.
Of course, even the monumental structures of the Acropolis are subject to the influence of time, so everything that can now be seen there is quite badly destroyed. The appearance of the “upper city” was further changed by the numerous destructions and devastation that occurred at different times. But, nevertheless, the Athenian Acropolis amazes us with its grace, luxury and perfection, even while in ruins.