April 23, 2025 - Greece
The Acropolis & Parthenon

Big day today!  We tour the Acropolis and see the Parthenon.  I wanted to do it right so I signed us up for a guided tour.  We walked from our Airbnb to the tour office, south of the Acropolis.

Here we are walking through the Plaka early in the day.  What a difference!  The street is mostly deserted and the all the vendor goods are locked up.
   
Standing outside the tour office with our auido-devices, ready to go.
   
Now on the tour, on our way to the Acropolis, walking by the Acropolis Museum, which we would check out after the guided tour.  The very-modern museum was opened in 2009.
   

Our first glimpse of the Parthenon!
   
Our tour guide talks to us on the south slope of the Acroplis at the Sanctuary of  Dionysus, founded in the second half of the 6th-century, B.C.   This is the earliest complex of monuments on the south slope.
   
Looking up at the Acroplis from the south slope.
   

Our tour guide stands at the base of a reconstructed statue of Menander, 342 BC to 290 BC, a Greek playwright and the best-known representative of Athenian New Comedy.  He wrote 108 comedies and took the prize at the Lenaia festival eight times.

The statue was erected in 291 BC.
   
We come to the Theater of Dionysos.
 
Originally part of the sanctuary of Dionysus Eleuthereus (Dionysus the Liberator). The first orchestra terrace was constructed on the site around the mid- to late-sixth century BC, where it hosted the City Dionysia. The theatre reached its fullest extent in the fourth century BC under the epistates of Lycurgus , when it would have had a capacity of up to 19,000 or so, and was in continuous use down to the Roman period. The theatre then fell into decay in the Byzantine era and was not identified, excavated and restored to its current condition until the nineteenth century.
 
Dionysus was the ancient Greek god of wine-making, orchards and fruit, vegetation, fertility, festivity, insanity, ritual madness, religious ecstasy, and theatre.
 
The worship of Dionysus had become firmly established by the seventh century BC.  He may have been worshiped as early as c. 1500–1100 BC by Mycenaean Greeks; and traces of Dionysian-type cult have also been found in ancient Minoan Crete.
 
   
 
   
Notice the fancy VIP seats up front (at left).
   

Choragic Monument of Thrasyllos, a memorial building erected in 320–319 BCE on the artificial scarp of the south face of the Acropolis of Athens to commemorate the choregos,Thrasyllos.  It is built in the form of a small temple and fills the opening of a large, natural cave. It was modified in 271–270 BCE by Thrasykles the son of Thrasyllos, agonothetes in the Great Dionysia Games.
   
Poppys provide a little color in the walk up to the Acropolis.
   
A remnant of the Stoa of Eumenes, donated to the city of Athens by the king of Pergamon, Eumenes II around 160 BC.  The Romans later connected it to the Theater of Dionysus and the Odeon of Herodes Atticus.
   

Temple of Asklepios, God of Health, under restoration.
   
Listening to our tour guide halfway up the hill.
   
Looking southwest at Filopappou Hill and Philopappos Monument, an ancient Roman mausoleum.  The prison of Socrates is supposedly up there on the hill
   
Getting closer to the top of the Acropolis.
   
Looking due south.
   
Our first glimpse of the Odeon of Herodes Atticus (Roman theater) on the southwest slope.
   
 
   

A better look at the Odeon of Herodes Atticus, also called Herodeion or Herodion.

It was built in AD 161 by Herodes Atticus in memory of his Roman wife, Aspasia Annia Regilla. It was originally a steep-sloped theatre with a three-story stone front wall and a wooden roof made of expensive cedar of Lebanon timber. It was used as a venue for music concerts with a capacity of 5,000.  When the Heruli sacked Athens in 267 AD, they left the facility in ruins.

The audience stands and the orchestra (stage) were restored using Pentelic marble in the 1950s. Since then it has been the main venue of the Athens Festival, which runs from May through October each year, featuring a variety of acclaimed Greek as well as International performances.
   
Another look south over Athens.
   

Looking southwest where their are all sorts of ruins in the forested area.

The silver dome at far right is Dorides Telescope.  It was built by the French house Gautie in 1902, with a donation from Dimitris Doridis. At that time it was the largest telescope in Greece. It is located on the Hill of the Nymphs in Thisio, opposite the sacred rock of the Acropolis.
   
Now looking west.  As you can see, Athens is a huge metropolis, radiating for miles from the Acropolis.  Athen's urban area's population numbers over 3.6 million people.  Athens is the capital and largest city of Greece.
   
Getting close to the top!
   
Looking northwest out over Athens.
   
Looking to the north now.  At lower left is the Temple of Hephaestus in the Ancient Agora of Athens, which we will tour later today.
   

Despite the timed entry, the entrance to the Acropolis is packed!  The Acropolis is number one on the list of things to see when visiting Athens.
   

Looking to the right we see the Temple of Athena Nike.

"At this temple, the goddess Athena, patron of the city, was worshipped for bringing the Athenians victory ("Nike").  A statue of Athena inside the temple celebrated teh turning-point victory over the Persians at the Battle of Plataea in 479 BC.  It was also meant to help ensure future victory over the Spartans in the ongoing Peloponnesian War.  The statue was never given wings, because Athenians wanted Athena to stay and protect their city."  ... Rick Steves

Where are all the tourists?
   
Ah, there they are!
   

About to enter the Propylaea, grand entrance to the Acropolis.  It was built between 437 and 432 BC and had white marble Doric columns.
   
Very impressive entrance.
   
Amazing the marble stone ceiling still stands after all these years.  It was painted sky blue and studded with stars back in the day.
   
 
   
Looking back at the Propylaea.
   
And there it is, at last:  the Parthenon (west facade).  It is considered an enduring symbol of Ancient Greece, democracy, and Western civilization.
 
The Parthenon was built in the 5th century BC in thanksgiving for the Greek victory over the Persian invaders during the Greco-Persian Wars.  Like most Greek temples, the Parthenon also served as the city treasury.  Construction started in 447 BC when the Delian League was at the peak of its power. It was completed in 438 BC; work on the artwork and decorations continued until 432 BC. For a time, it served as the treasury of the Delian League, which later became the Athenian Empire.
 
In the final decade of the 6th century AD, the Parthenon was converted into a Christian church dedicated to the Virgin Mary. After the Ottoman conquest in the mid-15th century, it became a mosque. In the Morean War, a Venetian bomb landed on the Parthenon, which the Ottomans had used as a munitions dump, during the 1687 siege of the Acropolis. The resulting explosion severely damaged the Parthenon. From 1800 to 1803, the 7th Earl of Elgin controversially removed many of the surviving sculptures and subsequently shipped them to England where they are now known as the Elgin Marbles or Parthenon marbles, displayed in the British Museum.  Since 1975, numerous large-scale restoration projects have been undertaken to preserve remaining artefacts and ensure its structural integrity.
   
Another look back at the Propylaea.
   
In the later 19th century, the Parthenon was widely considered by Americans and Europeans to be the pinnacle of human architectural achievement, and became a popular destination and subject of artists.
 
Today it attracts millions of tourists every year, who travel up the path at the western end of the Acropolis, through the restored Propylaea, and up the Panathenaic Way to the Parthenon.
 
You can see some of the repairs to the Parthenon columns.
   
The British Museum has an excellent page about the Parthenon and its sculptures:  Link.
   
 
   
The East facade.
   
Looking down the north side.
   
 
   


The east facade.  Most of the interior is gone.

During the Sixth Ottoman–Venetian War (1684–1699), the defending Muslims fortified the Acropolis and used the Parthenon as a gunpowder store. On 26 September 1687, a Venetian artillery round ignited the gunpowder, and the resulting explosion blew out the central portion of the Parthenon and caused the cella's walls to crumble into rubble.  Three of the four walls collapsed, or nearly so, and about three-fifths of the sculptures from the frieze fell.
 
   
A few remnants remain.
   
 
   
 
   
Yay, Parthenon!
   
 Northeast corner.
   
Southeast corner.
   
 
   
Southeast corner.
   
Southwest corner.
   
Somehow, one of the marbles remains.
   
The east facade.
   
Walking east towards the Viewing Platform.
 
   
The underlying rock is polished smooth by all the foot traffic.  I wonder how many people have walked this path in the last three thousand years?
   
The Greek flag flies proudly over the viewing platform.
   
A good shot of the Theatre of Dionysus from above.
   
Looking southwest at Filopappou Hill and Philopappos Monument.
   
Looking southeast at the Temple of Olympian Zeus and Arch of Hadrian.    At far left you can see some of the Panathenaic Stadium, site of the first modern Olympic games in 1896,.
   
Zooming in on the Panathenaic Stadium.
   
The Acropolis Museum, where we would soon be.
   
In the distance, at right, is the port city of Piraeus.  Beyond that is where one of the most important naval battles in history took place, the Naval Battle of Salamis, in 480 BC, between an alliance of Greek city-states under Themistocles, and the Achaemenid (Persian) Empire under King Xerxes. It resulted in a victory for the outnumbered Greeks.
   
Another look at the Odeon of Herodes Atticus.
   
Now looking north at the Roman Forum and Hadrian's Library.
   
A good look at the Ancient Agora of Athens and the Temple of Hephaestus.
   
Our Airbnb is on Agora Square, just to the right of Hadrian's Library, at lower center.  You can't really see it because of buildings in the way.
   
The Acropolis walls are sheer vertical on this side.
   
Heading back to the Parthenon and Propylaea.  This photo shows how flat the top of the Acroplis is.
   
A nice shot of the Parthenon's entire north side.
   
Looking north across the Acroplis and Athens.
 
At right is Mount Lycabettus, tallest point in central Athens, and home to an open-air amphitheatre on top.
   
On the north side of the Acropolis is the Erechtheion, honoring the Goddess Athena.  This famous, ancient Greek temple features a porch with six caryatids.
   
The Erechtheion from a different angle with a much better view of the six caryatids.
   
The front of the Erechtheion.
   
Close-up of the six caryatids which are replicas.  The originals are in the Acroplis Museum.
   
 
   
Heading back to the Propylaea. 
 
   
Walking back through the Propylaea.
   
The marble beams that support the roof.
   
Looking west after having passed through the Propylaea.
   
Down below is the Beulé Gate.
   
One last look back at the Parthenon.
   
The Acroplis lit up at night.
   
 
   
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