The Parthenon Temple is one of the symbols of Greece, a monument of ancient architecture, located in the central part of the Athens Acropolis.
The Parthenon is an ancient temple, the main symbol of the capital of Greece, Athens, and the entire country. Together with other buildings of the Athens Acropolis, the Parthenon is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The temple is dedicated to the patroness of the city, Athena the Virgin, who is also considered the patroness of the entire Attica - the area around the city.
Translated from ancient Greek, the Parthenon means “most pure”, “virgin”. Athena was awarded this epithet for her virginity, which was one of the fundamental qualities of the goddess. Scientists believe that the Christian cult of the Mother of God subsequently grew out of the cult of the warrior maiden Athena.
The temple is located in the center of the Acropolis of Athens - the upper city of Athens. The Acropolis of Athens is a hill in the center of the city, which is a rock 150 m high above sea level with a flat top. On the upper platform of the acropolis, measuring 300 m by 170 m, various temples, palaces and sculptures have been located since archaic times.
Parthenon architecture
Thanks to the developed culture of the Athenian polis, history has brought down to this day the names of the people who built the temple. The marble tablets on which the city authorities wrote down their decrees indicate who built the Parthenon. The author of the project is the architect Iktinus, the architect Callicrates supervised the construction of the temple, the great sculptor Phidias carried out the external decoration of the building and was the author of the sculptures that decorated the pediments and the interior of the temple. The general leadership was carried out by the great statesman and founding father of Athenian democracy, Pericles.
The Parthenon is a classical ancient Greek temple, rectangular in its base, surrounded on all sides by a Doric colonnade. The central facades have 8 columns, the side facades have 17, the total number of columns in the Parthenon is 50.
The Parthenon is interesting primarily for its unique architectural design used in the construction of the temple. In order to avoid optical distortions, the authors of the project resorted to innovative architectural techniques: the columns were thickened in the central part, and the corner columns were also inclined towards the center of the temple and had a slightly larger volume. During the construction of the temple, the principle of the golden ratio was used. Thanks to the techniques used by the architects, the impression of absolutely straight lines of the temple and its perfect appearance is created.
The temple was almost entirely built from expensive Pentelic marble, and gold was widely used in the initial decoration. The temple stands on three steps one and a half meters high; from the central western façade of the building the steps used to enter the building were cut out. The total length of the building is 70 m, width - 31 m, height - 14 m.
Not all the treasures of the Parthenon have survived to this day: such a masterpiece of the temple as the 13-meter statue of Athena Parthenos by the great sculptor Phidias, which once stood in the center of the Parthenon, has been lost forever to humanity. Of the many sculptural groups representing scenes from the life of the ancient gods and decorating the pediments of the building, only 11 have survived to this day; another 19 sculptures were barbarously cut down in the 19th century and taken to Great Britain, where they are now kept in the British Museum.
History of the Athens Parthenon
Marble tablets, on which the city authorities wrote down their decrees and orders, have preserved for us the exact date when the Parthenon was built. The start of construction was 447 BC. e. The construction of the temple took 10 years, after which in 438 BC. e. it was open. The construction of the temple dedicated to the goddess Athena cost the city treasury 700 talents - more than 18 tons of silver.
In the 3rd century BC. e. Athens survived the Heruli invasion, during which the Parthenon was sacked and burned. The roof, ceilings and doors of the temple were damaged. During the restoration, ancient builders did not strive to restore the Parthenon to its original form, so architectural distortions were introduced into it.
For about a thousand years, the Parthenon was a pagan temple, however, after the collapse of the Roman Empire and the formation of Byzantium, it was converted into a Christian church, presumably in the 6th century AD. e. During the turbulent medieval history of the Balkans and Athens in particular, the Parthenon either became a Catholic church or returned to the disposal of the Orthodox Patriarchate of Constantinople.
In the 15th century, Athens and all of Greece were conquered by the Ottoman Turks, after which the Parthenon was turned into a mosque, and a military garrison, a pasha's palace and even a harem were located on the territory of the Athenian Acropolis. The Great Turkish War between the Christian states of Europe and the Ottoman Empire was a heavy blow to the Parthenon. During the storming of Athens by the Venetians in 1687, the Parthenon was destroyed. The territory of the acropolis was fired from cannons, after which the temple, in which the gunpowder warehouse was located, exploded.
The Venetians who captured the city noted the colossal damage caused to the Parthenon by their own artillery. Three dozen columns were destroyed, the roof collapsed, some of the sculptures were destroyed, and the central section of the building collapsed. From that time on, the Parthenon fell into ruins and was never used as a temple again.
Throughout the 18th century, the Parthenon slowly collapsed: local residents used the ruins of the building as building material, and numerous European hunters for antique values exported elements of sculptures and decoration of the building to their countries. The picture of the destruction of the Parthenon was completed by the British ambassador to Turkey, Thomas Bruce, who at the beginning of the 19th century took to Great Britain more than 200 boxes with sculptures, fragments of columns and other artifacts of the Parthenon.
As a result, it is impossible to give a definite answer to the question “Who destroyed the Parthenon?” The destruction of the great temple was the work of many people: from the Ottoman rulers of Greece and the inhabitants of Athens to connoisseurs of ancient art from Europe.
After Greece gained independence in the first half of the 19th century, the area of the acropolis was cleared of later buildings such as a minaret, a medieval palace and even sculptures from the Roman period. The restoration of the temple began in the 19th century, but it was prevented by the earthquake of 1894, which further destroyed the building. The reconstruction of the Parthenon by Greek architects continued from the beginning of the 20th century until the middle of the century, after which the temple acquired its modern appearance. However, restoration and archaeological work did not stop after this and continues to this day.
What now
Nowadays, the Parthenon is the main attraction of Athens, one of the national shrines of Greece and the heritage of all mankind. The ideal appearance of the temple, although not completely preserved to this day, not only gives an idea of the cultural and technical achievements of ancient Greece, but is also a symbol of the possibilities of human genius. The Parthenon annually attracts millions of tourists to Athens, and since 1987, together with the entire territory of the Acropolis of Athens, it has been included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.
Where is the Parthenon
The Parthenon is located on the territory of the Acropolis of Athens in the very center of the Greek capital. In order to get to the Upper Town Hill, you need to get to the center of Athens. When traveling by Athens Skytrain, you need to get off at Akropolis station on the Athens Metro Red Line. Also, the large pedestrian street Dionysiou Areopagitou leads to the hill with the temple located on it.
Excursions to the Acropolis
You can visit the territory of the acropolis on your own; to do this, you need to purchase a ticket at the ticket office at the entrance to the territory of the archaeological site.
Opening hours of the Acropolis of Athens: 8:00 - 20:00, seven days a week.
Ticket price: 12 EUR, ticket is valid for 4 days from the date of purchase.
When visiting the acropolis, it is strictly forbidden to touch ancient buildings with your hands, including columns.
Ordering an individual tour of the Acropolis and visiting the main attractions with a Russian-speaking guide will cost 320 EUR. This excursion also includes a sightseeing tour of Athens. Duration of the excursion: from 2 to 5 hours.
the main temple of the Athenian Acropolis, dedicated to Athena Parthenos (i.e. the Virgin), the patron goddess of the city. Construction began in 447 BC, the consecration of the temple took place at the Panathenaic festival in 438 BC, but decoration (mainly sculptural work) continued until 432 BC. The Parthenon is a masterpiece of ancient Greek architecture and a symbol of the Greek genius. Story. The new temple was erected at the highest point of the Acropolis, on a site dedicated to the gods. The ancient temples were probably small in size, and therefore significant leveling of the Acropolis was not required. However, in 488 BC. a new temple was founded here to thank Athena for the victory over the Persians at Marathon. Its dimensions in plan are very close to the current Parthenon, and therefore it was necessary to erect a retaining wall in the middle of the southern slope and lay lime blocks at the base, so that the southern edge of the construction site rose above the rock of the Acropolis by more than 7 m. The planned temple was a peripterus with , apparently, there are 6 columns at the ends and 16 at the sides (counting the corner columns twice). Its stylobate (upper platform) and steps, like the columns themselves, as well as other structural elements, were made of marble (or at least intended to be marble). When in 480 BC The Acropolis was captured and plundered by the Persians, the temple under construction, which by that time had been brought only to the height of the second drum of columns, was destroyed by fire, and work was interrupted for more than 30 years. In 454 BC The treasury of the Delian Maritime League was transferred to Athens, where Pericles then ruled, and soon, in 447 BC, construction work on the almost finished site resumed. The Parthenon was erected by the architects Ictinus and Callicrates (also called Carpion), as well as Phidias, who was primarily responsible for the sculpture, but in addition exercised general supervision over the progress of work on the Acropolis. The creation of the Parthenon was part of Pericles' plan for Athens to gain primacy not only in the military and economic fields, but also in religion and art. Regarding the further fate of the temple, we know that approx. 298 BC the Athenian tyrant Lacharus removed the gold plates from the cult statue of Athena, and in the 2nd century. BC. The building, damaged by the fire, was thoroughly repaired. In 426 AD The Parthenon was converted into a Christian church, originally St. Sofia. Apparently, at the same time, in the 5th century, the statue of Athena was transported to Constantinople, where it subsequently died in a fire. The original main eastern entrance was closed by the altar apse, so now the main entrance became the western entrance through the room behind the cella, previously separated by a blank wall. Other layout changes were also made, and a bell tower was erected in the southwestern corner of the temple. In 662 the temple was re-dedicated in honor of the Most Holy Theotokos (“Panagia Athiniotissa”). After the Turkish conquest, ca. 1460, the building was converted into a mosque. In 1687, when the Venetian military leader F. Morosini was besieging Athens, the Turks used the Parthenon as a gunpowder warehouse, which led to disastrous consequences for the building: a hot cannonball flying into it caused an explosion that destroyed its entire middle part. No repairs were carried out then; on the contrary, local residents began to take away the marble blocks to burn lime from them. Lord T. Elgin, appointed British Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire in 1799, received permission from the Sultan to export the sculptures. During 1802-1812, the lion's share of the surviving sculptural decoration of the Parthenon was transported to Great Britain and placed in the British Museum (some of the sculptures ended up in the Louvre and Copenhagen, although some remained in Athens). In 1928, a foundation was created with the goal of, as far as possible, replacing the fallen columns and entablature blocks, and on May 15, 1930, the northern colonnade of the temple was inaugurated.
Architecture. The Parthenon in its current form is a Doric order peripter standing on three marble steps (total height approx. 1.5 m), having 8 columns at the ends and 17 on the sides (if you count the corner columns twice). The height of the peristyle columns, made up of 10-12 drums, is 10.4 m, their diameter at the base is 1.9 m, the corner columns are slightly thicker (1.95 m). The columns have 20 flutes (vertical grooves) and taper towards the top. The dimensions of the temple in plan (according to the stylobate) are 30.9 * 69.5 m. The interior of the temple, or cella (external size 21.7 * 59 m), is raised above the stylobate by two more steps (total height 0.7 m) and It has six-column protile porticoes at the ends, the columns of which are slightly lower than in the outer colonnade. The cella is divided into two rooms. The eastern one, longer and called hecatompedon (internal size 29.9 * 19.2 m), was divided into three naves by two rows of 9 Doric columns, which were closed at the western end by a transverse row of three additional columns. It is assumed that there was a second tier of Doric columns, which was located above the first and provided the required height of the ceilings. In the space enclosed by the inner colonnade, there was a colossal (12 m in height) chrysoelephantine (made of gold and ivory) cult statue of Athena by Phidias. In the 2nd century. AD it was described by Pausanias, and its general appearance is known from several smaller copies and numerous images on coins. The ceilings of the western room of the cella (internal size 13.9 * 19.2 m), which was called the Parthenon (the treasury of the Delian League and the state archive were kept here; over time, the name was transferred to the entire temple), rested on four high columns, presumably Ionic. All elements of the Parthenon's structure, including the roof tiles and stylobate steps, were hewn from local Pentelic marble, almost white immediately after quarrying, but over time acquiring a warm yellowish tint. No mortar or cement was used and the masonry was done dry. The blocks were carefully adjusted to each other, the horizontal connection between them was carried out using I-beam iron fasteners placed in special grooves and filled with lead, the vertical connection was made using iron pins.
Sculpture. The decoration of the temple, which complemented its architecture, is divided into three main categories: metopes, or square panels, equipped with high reliefs, located between the triglyphs of the frieze above the outer colonnade; a bas-relief that encircled the cella from the outside in a continuous strip; two colossal groups of free-standing sculptures filled the deep (0.9 m) triangular pediments. On 92 metopes scenes of martial arts are presented: gods and giants on the eastern side, lapiths and centaurs (they are best preserved) on the southern side, Greeks and Amazons on the western side, participants in the Trojan War (presumably) on the northern side. The sculptural group on the eastern pediment depicted the birth of Athena, who, fully armed, jumped out of the head of Zeus after the blacksmith god Hephaestus cut the head with an ax. The group from the western pediment represented the dispute over Attica between Athena and Poseidon, when the olive tree donated by the goddess was considered a more valuable gift than the source of salt water discovered in the rock by Poseidon. A few statues have survived from both groups, but it is clear from them that this was a great artistic creation of the mid-5th century. BC. The bas-relief strip on top of the cella (total length 160 m, height 1 m, height from the stylobate 11 m, in total there were about 350 foot and 150 horse figures) depicted the Panathenaic procession, which annually presented Athena with a new robe - peplos. Along the northern and southern sides are horsemen, chariots, and citizens of Athens moving from west to east, and closer to the head of the procession are musicians, people with gifts, sacrificial sheep and bulls. Along the western end wall, above the portico, there are groups of cavalrymen standing near their horses, mounted on them or already leaving (this part of the bas-relief remained in Athens). At the eastern end there is a central group of the procession, consisting of the priest and priestess of Athena with three young servants: the priest accepts a folded peplos. On the sides of this scene are figures of the most important gods of the Greek pantheon. They are divided into two groups and turned to face outward, towards the corners of the building, as if watching the approach of the procession. Next to them, on the right and left, are two groups of citizens or officials, and on the edges are slowly moving people leading the procession.
"Refinements" of the Parthenon. The meticulous thoughtfulness of the Parthenon's design, with the goal of depriving the building of mechanical straightforwardness and giving it life, is manifested in a number of "refinements" that are revealed only with special research. Let's mention just a few. The stylobate rises slightly towards the center, the rise along the northern and southern façade is approx. 12 cm, in the north and west - 6.5 mm; the corner columns of the end facades are slightly inclined towards the middle, and the two middle ones, on the contrary, are inclined towards the corners; the trunks of all columns have a slight swelling, entasis, in the middle; the front surface of the entablature is slightly inclined outward, and the pediment inward; The diameter of the corner columns, visible against the sky, is slightly larger than that of the others, and in addition, in cross section they represent a complex figure, different from a circle. Many details of the building were painted. The lower surface of the echinus (the extensions on the capitals of the columns) was red, as was the tenia (the belt between the architrave and the frieze). Red and blue colors were used on the bottom surface of the cornice. The marble caissons covering the colonnade were shaded in red, blue and gold or yellow. Color was also used to emphasize the elements of sculpture. Bronze wreaths were also used in the decoration of the building, as evidenced by holes drilled in the architrave for their fastening.
Collier's Encyclopedia. - Open Society. 2000 .
25. Temple of the goddess Athena on the Acropolis
The Parthenon - the temple of the goddess Athena - is the largest structure on the Acropolis and the most beautiful creation of Greek architecture. It stands not in the center of the square, but somewhat to the side, so that you can immediately take in the front and side facades and understand the beauty of the temple as a whole. The ancient Greeks believed that the temple with the main cult statue in the center represented the house of the deity.
The Parthenon is the temple of Athena the Virgin (Parthenos), and therefore in its center there was a chrysoelephantine (made of ivory and gold plates on a wooden base) statue of the goddess.
The Parthenon was erected in 447–432 BC. e. architects Ictinus and Callicrates from Pentelic marble. It was located on a four-stage terrace, the size of its base was 69.5 x 30.91 meters. The Parthenon is surrounded on four sides by slender colonnades; gaps of blue sky are visible between their white marble trunks. Entirely permeated with light, it seems airy and light. There are no bright designs on the white columns, as is found in Egyptian temples. Only longitudinal grooves (flutes) cover them from top to bottom, making the temple seem taller and even slimmer. The columns owe their slenderness and lightness to the fact that they taper slightly towards the top. In the middle part of the trunk, completely invisible to the eye, they thicken and therefore seem elastic, more firmly withstanding the weight of the stone blocks. Iktypus and Callicrates, having thought through every smallest detail, created a building that amazes with its amazing proportionality, extreme simplicity and purity of all lines.
Placed on the upper platform of the Acropolis, at an altitude of about 150 meters above sea level, the Parthenon was visible not only from anywhere in the city, but also from numerous ships sailing to Athens. The temple was a Doric peripeter surrounded by a colonnade of 46 columns.
The most famous masters participated in the sculptural design of the Parthenon.
The artistic director of the construction and decoration of the Parthenon was Phidias, one of the greatest sculptors of all time. He is responsible for the overall composition and development of the entire sculptural decoration, part of which he performed himself.
The organizational side of the construction was handled by Pericles, the largest statesman of Athens.
The entire sculptural design of the Parthenon was intended to glorify the goddess Athena and her city - Athens. The theme of the eastern pediment is the birth of Zeus's beloved daughter. On the western pediment the master depicted a scene of a dispute between Athena and Poseidon for dominance over Attica. According to the myth, Athena won the dispute and gave the inhabitants of this country an olive tree.
The gods of Greece, the thunderer Zeus, the mighty ruler of the seas Poseidon, the wise warrior Athena, and the winged Nike gathered on the pediments of the Parthenon. The sculptural decoration of the Parthenon was completed by a frieze, which depicted a solemn procession during the festival of the Great Panathenaia. This frieze is considered one of the pinnacles of classical art. Despite all its compositional unity, it amazed with its diversity. Of the more than 500 figures of young men, elders, girls, on foot and on horseback, not one repeated the other; the movements of people and animals were conveyed with amazing dynamism.
The figures of the sculptural Greek relief are not flat, they have the volume and shape of the human body. They differ from statues only in that they are not processed on all sides, but seem to merge with the background formed by the flat surface of the stone.
Light colors enlivened the Parthenon marble. The red background emphasized the whiteness of the figures, the narrow vertical projections that separated one slab of the frieze from the other stood out clearly in blue, and the gilding shone brightly. Behind the columns, on a marble ribbon encircling all four facades of the building, a festive procession was depicted.
There are almost no gods here, and people, forever imprinted in stone, moved along the two long sides of the building and united on the eastern facade, where a solemn ceremony took place to present the priest with a robe woven by Athenian girls for the goddess. Each figure is characterized by its unique beauty, and all together they accurately reflect the true life and customs of the ancient city.
Indeed, once every five years, on one of the hot days of mid-summer, a nationwide celebration took place in Athens in honor of the birth of the goddess Athena. It was called the Great Panathenaia. Not only citizens of the Athenian state, but also many guests took part in it. The celebration consisted of a solemn procession (pump), the bringing of a hecatomb (100 head of cattle) and a common meal, sports, equestrian and musical competitions. The winner received a special, so-called Panathenaic amphora filled with oil, and a wreath made from the leaves of the sacred olive tree growing on the Acropolis.
The most solemn moment of the holiday was the national procession to the Acropolis.
Riders on horses were moving, statesmen, warriors in armor and young athletes were walking. Priests and nobles walked in long white robes, heralds loudly praised the goddess, musicians filled the still cool morning air with joyful sounds. Along the zigzag Panathenaic road, trampled by thousands of people, sacrificial animals climbed the high hill of the Acropolis. The boys and girls carried with them a model of the sacred Panathenaic ship with a peplos (veil) attached to its mast. A light breeze fluttered the bright fabric of the yellow-violet robe, which was carried as a gift to the goddess Athena by the noble girls of the city.
For a whole year they wove and embroidered it. Other girls raised sacred vessels for sacrifices high above their heads.
Gradually the procession approached the Parthenon. The entrance to the temple was made not from the Propylaea, but from the other, as if so that everyone would first walk around, examine and appreciate the beauty of all parts of the beautiful building. Unlike Christian churches, ancient Greek ones were not intended for worship inside them; the people remained outside the temple during religious activities.
In the depths of the temple, surrounded on three sides by two-tiered colonnades, the famous statue of the Virgin Athena, created by the famous Phidias, stood proudly. Her clothes, helmet and shield were made of pure sparkling gold, and her face and hands shone with the whiteness of ivory.
Many book volumes have been written about the Parthenon, among them there are monographs about each of its sculptures and about each step of gradual decline from the time when, after the decree of Theodosius I, it became a Christian temple. In the 15th century, the Turks turned it into a mosque, and in the 17th century, into a gunpowder warehouse. It was turned into final ruins by the Turkish-Venetian War of 1687, when a Venetian artillery shell hit it and in one moment did what all-consuming time could not do in 2000 years.
This text is an introductory fragment.The famous ancient Greek temple, the Parthenon, is located on the famous Acropolis of Athens. This main temple in Ancient Athens is a magnificent monument of ancient architecture. It was built in honor of the patroness of Athens and all of Attica - the goddess Athena.
The construction date of the Parthenon is considered to be 447 BC. It was installed thanks to the found fragments of marble tablets, on which the city authorities presented resolutions and financial reports. Construction lasted 10 years. The temple was consecrated in 438 BC. on the festival of Panathenaia (which translated from Greek means “for all Athenians”), although work on decorating and decorating the temple was carried out until 431 BC.
The initiator of the construction was Pericles, an Athenian statesman, famous commander and reformer. The design and construction of the Parthenon was carried out by the famous ancient Greek architects Ictinus and Kallikrates. The decoration of the temple was made by the greatest sculptor of those times - Phidias. High quality Pentelic marble was used for the construction.
The building was built in the form of a peripterus (a rectangular structure surrounded by columns). The total number of columns is 50 (8 columns on the facades and 17 columns on the sides). The ancient Greeks took into account that straight lines are distorted at a distance, so they resorted to some optical techniques. For example, the columns do not have the same diameter along the entire length; they taper somewhat towards the top, and the corner columns are also inclined towards the center. Thanks to this, the structure seems ideal.
Previously, in the center of the temple there was a statue of Athena Parthenos. The monument was about 12 m high and made of gold and ivory on a wooden base. In one hand the goddess held a statue of Nike, and with the other she leaned on a shield, near which the serpent Erichthonius was curled up. On Athena's head there was a helmet with three large crests (the middle one with the image of a sphinx, the side ones with griffins). The scene of Pandora's birth was carved on the pedestal of the statue. Unfortunately, the statue has not survived to this day and is known from descriptions, images on coins and a few copies.
Over many centuries, the temple was attacked more than once, a significant part of the temple was destroyed, and historical relics were looted. Today, some parts of the masterpieces of ancient sculptural art can be seen in famous museums around the world. The main part of the magnificent works of Phidias was destroyed by people and time.
Restoration work is currently underway; reconstruction plans include maximum recreation of the temple in its original form in ancient times.
The Parthenon, part of the Acropolis of Athens, is included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.
Since childhood I dreamed of visiting Greece. The mysterious country from a school history textbook I read long ago always attracted me and seemed like an amazing place. But what do we really know about her?
Probably, each of us, when we hear the word “Greece,” imagines the bright sun, the sound of the sea, the taste of olives and majestic ancient ruins. And most people probably remember the same ruins of the ancient Parthenon, located on a rocky hill - a huge structure with high marble columns and a crowd of tourists nearby. Which, however, is not surprising, since this is the most recognizable temple in Greece and must have been one of the most famous buildings of antiquity. In a word, this is a unique place, next to which I feel as if I am going back in time.
A little history of the Parthenon
As I already said, the Parthenon is located on the Acropolis of Athens - an ancient city on a high rocky hill. It was built in 447-438 BC. e. by order of the Athenian ruler Pericles by the architect Callicrates and decorated in 438-431 BC. e. under the leadership of Phidias, the great ancient Greek sculptor. The same one who is the author of one of the wonders of the world - the statue of Zeus in Olympia.
The Parthenon was built in honor of the patroness of the city, the goddess of wisdom and just war. During the heyday of the Athenian state, it was the main temple of the city, and the treasury was also kept there. But as the years passed, in the Middle Ages the Parthenon was first a Catholic and then an Orthodox church, and after the conquest of Greece by the Ottoman Empire, a mosque was built inside.
In general, when I climbed the Acropolis and stood at the steps of the Parthenon, an unforgettable sight opened up: at the foot of the hill a huge city stretched for many kilometers, surrounded by small mountains on one side and the sea on the other. In ancient times, when the Parthenon in Athens was just being built, the sea was much closer, and if you give free rein to your imagination, removing the chimneys of factories on the outskirts and power lines above houses, you can try to see Greece as the ancient Greeks saw it - with the endless blue sea and green hills around. I was there in May, and the picture was complemented by the incredible smell of oranges growing in the gardens at the foot.
The Parthenon itself is a building 70 meters long and 30 meters wide, it is surrounded by a colonnade of 8 columns in the facades and 17 on the sides. Another unique architectural feature is that the Parthenon is built in such a way that it looks perfectly rectilinear, but in reality it has practically no straight lines in its contours. Needless to say, the ancients knew how to build - there are no other similar buildings in the world. The temple was once decorated with high reliefs, many of which have survived - some in the Acropolis Museum (a large glass building next to the entrance to the Acropolis), some in (and this is already in London). But, unfortunately, you won’t be able to get inside the Parthenon - the temple is under restoration.
How to get to the Parthenon
The Parthenon is located at the southern end of the Acropolis of Athens, a huge rocky hill that is visible from almost everywhere in the city center. Exact address: Dionysiou Areopagitou 15, Athens 117 42.
Now I will talk about the most convenient way to get to the Parthenon:
- On foot. If you are staying in the center, then, as mentioned above, the Parthenon is visible from everywhere, and finding it will not be a problem. The nearest residential areas are Plaka and Anafiotika. Not a bad option for those who are staying in the city center or just like to walk around beautiful places, like me.
- Metro. The nearest station is Akropoli. A ticket costs 1.2 euros, people over 65 years old and under 18 years old - 0.6 euros, they are sold in special terminals. For 70 minutes, the pass will also be valid for the tram, so this method will be convenient if you are coming from the outskirts of the city. I recommend this option: it is cheaper and faster.
- By taxi. There are a lot of them in Athens, they are yellow and can be found almost everywhere. The price starts from 1 euro and then 0.34 euros/km, which makes a taxi a fairly inexpensive mode of transport. But remember that traffic jams and rush hours have not yet been canceled, and not every driver can deny themselves the pleasure of making extra money on tourists by raising the price.
Conditions for visiting the Parthenon
The Parthenon is open daily from 8.00 to 18.30 from April to October, from 8.00 to 17.00 from November to March.
The ticket costs 12 euros, sold at the box office at the entrance to the Acropolis. There are several ticket offices, as well as entrances. There, for 20 euros, they sell a complex ticket, which includes visits to the Kerameilos cemetery, the Temple pf Olympian Zeus, the Roman Agora, the Ancient Agora of Athens and the Theater of Dionysus. Dionysus). This ticket allows you to save a pretty penny on seeing all these places (and they are worth it), and, apparently, for this reason, information about its existence is given in small print in the corner of the ticket office.
There are a lot of tourists at any time of the day, so I recommend coming early to avoid standing in line in the heat.
On a note
I will give some more tips that may be useful to you:
Take water with you. Although there are tents with drinks and food on the territory of the acropolis, the path from the top to them is not short.
Be sure to take a hat with you - you will have to climb to the top of the hill, it will be hot.
Like other Greek landmarks, the Parthenon is closed on public holidays: January 1, January 6, March 25, May 1, August 15, October 28, December 25–26. It is also closed on religious Orthodox holidays: Easter, Clean Monday, Good Friday, Spiritual Day, Ascension of the Lord, Trinity.
There is no need to leave trash behind - there are no employees only at first glance, but they are there and they see everything.
