Well, for starters, I'll give you a little background info. The Acropolis is the citadel of Athens. The Acropolis itself is a flat-topped rock that rises 490 feet above sea level in the city of Athens, with a surface area of about 30,000 square meters. It's made out of 22,000 tons of Athenian white marble. Quite simply, it's huge and can be seen from pretty much anywhere in the city (which was the intention of the builders).
Secondly, the only way to get up to this huge thing is to walk/hike/trek it. It was some good leg exercise, let me tell you. At the foot of the Acropolis, there is the Theater of Dionysos which was the main theater of Athens that housed all of the famous tragedies and comedies of Sophokles, Aeschylus, etc. It originally was able to seat almost 20,000 people. They're in the middle of reconstructing it but we were still able to actually walk up on it and sit down on the stone bleachers. It was so cool.
Around the base of the Acropolis, there is also an odeon (shown below) which is a Roman-styled theater that was once covered with a wooden roof (though none of that remains today). Otherwise, it is miraculously in tact, as you can see, much more than the Theater of Dionysos because it is of a later date.
Once you finally reach the walls of the Acropolis, you enter through the Propylea, which are monumental gates with columns made of Pentelic marble.
South of the Propylea is the Temple of Athena Nike, shown below.
To the North is the Erechtheum, another Greek temple. It's exact purpose is still unknown and there are many theories. Some believe it was dedicated to the Greek hero Ericthonius, others say it was built in honor of the legendary king Erectheus; some believe Ericthonius and Erectheus to actually be the same person. There's also the Athenian myth that it is dedicated to Athena (the patron goddess of Athens). The story goes that the Athenians were trying to decide which god/goddess they should name their city after, and so they had a contest in which Poseidon and Athena were opponents. As the Athenians watched, Poseidon struck a rock with his trident and produced a salt water well in honor of the Athenians. Athena, however, struck a rock with her spear and produced an olive tree, a symbol of wealth, prosperity and wisdom. The Athenians were more pleased with Athena's gift to them and so they named their city after her and erected this temple in her honor.
Nevertheless, It's quite a peculiar building. It has the famous "porch of the maidens," shown in the front below. Absolutely stunning.
Then, of course, there's the Parthenon. The Parthenon had 46 outer columns and 23 inner columns in total. The exterior columns maintain a doric style but on the interior are ionic; thus, the Parthenon was the first building to combine both of these architectural styles in one building.
The Parthenon is undoubtedly dedicated to Athena because the East pediment contains a sculptural arrangement depicting the birth of Athena from the head of her father, Zeus. The West pediment depicts the contest between Athena and Poseidon, which I described above.
After spending much time on the Acropolis, we climbed back down and went across the street into the brand, spanking new Acropolis Museum which is gorgeous. Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take any photographs :( Here's some views from the top of the Acropolis though...
What did I tell ya? Stunning.
After the museum, we had the rest of the day free to do whatever. Since we were already in downtown Athens, a great shopping area, most of us just stayed there for lunch and did some shopping. It was a gorgeous, gorgeous day here in Athens. 60 degrees, sunny, a light breeze. Perfect. What a day.
That was awesome!!!
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