The Acropolis (Athens Day #1)

I know, I know - this title isn't up to my usual witty and hilarious standard.


Sorry about that.  But the truth is that nothing cute or witty seemed to properly capture the size, dignity, and history of what we saw at the Acropolis of Athens.  First, a quick educational note:  Acropolis actually means "city on the edge", or something similar.  There are many acropoleis (I would have called them "acropolises", but my name's not Webster) in Athens, but there is only one Acropolis.

The Acropolis is actually a high, flat area that sits ~150 meters above the city of Athens.  The area was built up as a temple to the goddess Athena for the first time in the middle of the 500s BC.  The Persians invaded in 480 BC, and the resultant battles destroyed most of the buildings on the site.  The Acropolis that we know today was part of a reconstruction effort by Pericles (460-430 BC).  The site was never a residential area, but rather an area with temples and monuments, reserved for worship.

After our early morning arrival in Athens on Sunday, we set out to explore The Acropolis.  This Sunday morning visiting time proved to be a WIN for us: few tourists and free entry!  We made our way up, reading and researching on the Kindle as we went.  After climbing a bit, we arrived at the gates (Propylaea):

Trust me, this is "just a few" tourists.

We traded photo-taking with a friendly American couple (the husband was from New Jersey, in fact).  In this one, we’re sitting near the bottom of the Propylaea, facing the Acropolis.  Part of the city of Athens is spread out behind us.

To one side of the Propylaea is the small (relatively speaking) Temple of Athena Nike. We actually neglected to get a photo of it because we didn't even realize that we'd passed it until we were all the way up and through the gates.  Ooops.  The dangers of adventuring sans guide.  After making our way up the stairs, we were greeted by this:

[Photo taken by walking up the stairs, through this hallway, and turning around.  This is taken looking back the way we came up.]

Keep in mind that this is just the entrance.  As with anything that is over 2,000 years old (and many historical structures that are considerable less old), what remains standing today is a combination of original pieces that have been supplemented and reconstructed with modern day materials to maintain structural integrity and safety.  In this case, our guidebook for Greece told us clearly that the large columns shown here are all replicas, with the exception of one (I believe the one in the front right of the photo).  It’s hard to see in the picture, but in person, we could distinguish the differences in material and level of degradation.  However, you can still see at least one bit of lighter colored material filling toward the bottom of the "original" column.  Again - just a fact, not a judgement.  I won't look this good at 2,000 years old, that's for sure.

One thing we discovered as we’ve toured through plenty of very old sites and ruins over the past week (remember, we’re about 10 days behind in our blogging) is that, very often, it’s hard to tell how much of any particular structure is “original”.  We have visited a number of very old sites since we’ve been to the Acropolis, and this has been a constant question/concern I’ve had: What is original, and what is part of a restoration?  Bear in mind that these structures have undergone many iterations of repairs, from their re-discovery – often several hundred years ago - through the present day.  Furthermore, the understanding of how best to preserve, maintain, and repair such work is constantly changing.  Today, archaeologists and other experts now realize that some of the preservation and rescue techniques used in the early 20^th century are actually causing more harm to the current structures. 

We could actually see some of the remnants of restoration work as we got to the top and saw the most famous building on the Acropolis, the Parthenon.

Nope, we don't know those people. They just jumped into our photo.

Now, let's take a look at it from the other side (don't mind Stanley, he and Kee-Min are in there for perspective):

Small Kee-Min and even smaller Stanley.
See where the roof starts to rise on each side (the rest is broken off), where there's a small statue on the left?  The entire triangle under the roofline was once dominated by an intricately carved scene.  The same was true on the other side.  More about this in a day or two.

They are pretty cute, huh?

If you're a numbers person, the temple is approximately 100 x 230 feet (you could fit a LOT of living rooms in there), with 8 pillars on the "short" sides and 15 pillars on the "long" sides.  For you mathematicians out there, many of the Parthenon's proportions can be circumscribed by golden rectangles.  Interestingly, the Greeks even knew a thing or two about design and perception: The temple is built with columns that lean slightly inward and a floor that is slightly tipped, and some scholars today hypothesize that these tweaks are designed to counteract optical illusions that would otherwise make the columns or floor appear bowed.


The Parthenon is also called the Temple of Athena Parthenos and was, as the name implies, built as a temple dedicated to Athena.  Although it contained a sanctuary and an enormous statue of Athena, the Parthenon actually was not the central worship site on the hill.  Rather, it was a place to house the Athena statue, and it also served as the bank/treasury for the city.


Now, bear in mind that, despite reconstruction, they have been through a LOT.  During the Byzantine era (~400 - 1200 AD), the temples were "converted" to Christian churches.  Many of the statues, adornments, and friezes were destroyed during this takeover.  


Further insult to the Parthenon in particular occurred in the late 1600s, when the Turks had taken over Athens and were defending the city against invading Venetians.  The Turks stored their gunpowder in the Parthenon, which exploded when hit by Venetian fire.  For more awesome factoids about Athens, and a bit of advice about the preservation of historical structures, check out Kee-Min's summary post on Athens here. 

Thankfully, some of the structures on the site are better preserved (no gunpowder).  Back in the day, most of the actual worship was done at the nearby Erechtheum, which contained temples for a number of gods, including Athena and Poseidon.  Compared to the Parthenon, this structure is ridiculously small:

Erechtheum, from the right.

Erechtheum, from the left.

Even this smaller temple is huge - look at the people in the photo above.  It's almost impossible to convey how massive these structures really are if you aren't standing at their base, in person.  Remember, too, that all of the stone had to be brought up the hill to the site, then cut and chiseled to size, and finally erected, often to quite a height.  It's not until you're actually standing next to them that the full force of what an engineering feat their construction was, over 2,000 years ago.


As we walked back down the hill, we came upon what remains of the Theater of Dionysus (Dionysus is the god of dance, song, and possibly wine (?)).  The Greeks are credited with "inventing" the tragedy, and many plays of the era were performed here:

Only a portion of the seating area remains.  At its height, the theater could sit 17,000. WHOA.

If you look closely, you may be able to see that the first row close to the stage contains some thrones in place of the "regular" stone seats embedded in the hillside.

We also passed some bits of excavation currently underway - or stalled in progress - including the workspaces of some of the craftsmen.  Very cool, even if hard to see through dirty plexiglass (the sites are being excavated from below the current ground level, and they are covered by plexiglass at the top, to protect the work and artifacts during excavation).  Finally, at the bottom of the hill, just before exiting the complex, we came to a small pavilion called the "Collection of Body Parts", or something similar.   The biologist in me couldn't resist a peek:

Body parts, indeed.

This is what happens when the Christians come in and smash up the pagan god statues...
Anyone out there missing some feet??

 Now, all of this was incredible to see, but as the morning wore on, I began to realize that my crummy run from the previous day wasn't just a fluke.  I was actually incubating two different unfriendly bugs, and by the afternoon I was down for the count with both a head cold and intestinal bug.  I spent the rest of the day in bed, and Kee-Min spent the afternoon researching places to eat in Athens.  He'll be blogging about the fruits of his research shortly.  Stay tuned for that, as well as Day #2 in Athens.