Romans in Athens: Hadrian's Arch and the Temple of Zeus (Athens Day #3)

We awoke on Tuesday morning, hoping that, with Carnival and Clean Monday out of the way, we'd actually be able to visit some more sites around Athens.  One benefit of the previous day's unexpected museum closures was that I got a bit of extra rest, so I was also feeling more recovered from the double bug shenanigans and ready to take on Athens.

We stepped outside into some - like, a very, very few - flurries.  Tony, our host - who you may remember from this post - bemoaned the weather and assured us that this never happens in Athens!!  He apologized profusely, despite our assurances that it really was OK, and we weren't holding him (or Athens) accountable for the weather.

Grey skies and snow covered mountains in the distance...

Having become accustomed to winters in Upstate New York, we weren't about to let a few flurries ruin our day - especially if they kept the other tourists at home!  Truly, we are finding this time of year to be absolutely glorious for travel in Europe. Yes, it's a tad chilly, and no, it's not beach weather - but if you want to visit the "tourist spots" and are willing to put on an extra layer of clothing, you'll avoid the ridiculous crowds that we'd heard flood these places in the warmer months.


This particular morning was a perfect example.  When we set out, the sky was overcast and a few flurries were falling.  After a brisk 20 minute walk, we reached Hadrian's Arch.


At present, Hadrian's Arch sits right next to a busy Athens city street and sidewalk.  In fact, as disrespectful as it might seem, when we approached, there was a gentleman relieving himself in the bushes just next to the arch (and he wasn't a runner).  I guess that's just what the locals do?


That mental image aside, here's Hadrian's Arch:

Did I mention that the Arch was 18 meters tall?  That little speck in the lower left is Kee-Min.

There was a small sign identifying the arch (as if an 18 meter tall marble arch needs a sign to identify it, but whatever), and that was about it.  It's not even fenced in (again, at 18 meters high, there wouldn't be a point), so admission was free!  The trickiest part was getting far enough away to squeeze the whole arch into the photo.  The second trickiest part was getting a decent photo without too much traffic in the background.  I failed, but what the heck.  It was a busy Tuesday morning in downtown Athens.


Now, Hadrian's Arch was built by the Athenians around 130 AD, possibly to celebrate the arrival of the Roman Emperor Hadrian to Athens.  The arch actually spanned an ancient road that led between the Parthenon (see photo below) and the Temple of Zeus (see photos further below).  If you look through the lowest arch on this one, you'll see (from bottom to top) traffic, some modern building, and then the Parthenon in the background:

The Parthenon back there is only about 300 meters away.
Also? Note the bright, sunshiney sky.
Athens weather proved quite unpredictable during our visit.

Think about the engineering involved in building this kind of structure. The whole thing is made out of marble (Pentelic marble, for Megan G. and any other marble aficionados that might be reading) without the use of any mortar or concrete.  Personally? I wish I'd been privy to the conversation that went into the design: "And hey, after we put the that single arched passage, let's add some Corinthian columns on the top, just to be awesome!"

We next proceeded to the Temple of Olympian Zeus, a once-enormous temple dedicated to Zeus (duh).  When construction of the temple began in the 500s BC, it was envisaged to be the greatest temple in the ancient world.  Although it wasn't finished until the 2nd century AD, after Romans assumed rule of Athens, it was grand indeed, and housed one of the largest statues of a Greek or Roman god.  [Unfortunately, the statue is long gone, probably destroyed in a subsequent invasion.]  But the temple's glory was short-lived, and much of it was destroyed when the Barbarians invaded in the 3rd century AD.  

One of the remaining columns bears an inscription from the 1400s, stating that, at that time, only 21 of the original 121 columns remained.  In 1759, the Turkish governor of Athens (lots of power struggles and changes in rule back then) purportedly shot one of the columns down to reuse parts of it in a mosque he was building.  Tuck this tidbit in the back of your head, it's a theme that will come up repeatedly in Rome.

Today, 15 of the original (121) columns remain.  This is enough to give you an idea of the enormity of this building:

This is the most intact section, ~ 3 x 4 enormous columns.

How enormous? THIS enormous!

Here's another perspective, with the Parthenon in the background:

A sixteenth column remains at the site, having fallen during a storm in the 1800s.  Seeing it gives you a sense of the size and construction of these enormous columns - many small pieces atop one another:

Also note the distinct absence of any other tourists in all of these photos.  We saw about 8 other people at the site while we were there. And with the sun out, the day had warmed up nicely, as well.  So, I will reiterate: March is a great time to travel in Europe, if you want to miss the bulk of the tourists.

Now, back to the site, which also contained some other, partially unearthed ruins, like those of an ancient bath:

You can still see the shiny marble floors.  Crazy!

I cannot convey in words how surreal it is to walk around a city like this, with so much history, and realize that there is probably an enormous amount still undiscovered, sitting under the modern-day city.  Even walking around this excavation area, Kee-Min spied a marble step, only half uncovered, right along the path where we were walking:

Bet you never found one of these in your backyard...

And this concluded our morning Ruins Tour.  For the afternoon, we headed over to the Acropolis Museum. Check back soon to read all about it!