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Athens 394 pictures 18 minutes HQ video Acropolis On the rocky hill that formerly housed a Mycenaean palace surrounded by Cyclopean walls, stand the remains of one of the greatest monumental and artistic complexes in the world, a masterpiece dating from the time of Pericles. The hill, surrounded by marble walls in isodomic masonry from the 5^th century B.C. Monument of Agrippa On the entrance lies the large base of the monument of Agrippa, an admiral and son-in-law of Augustus Caesar, who reused an anathema monument commemorating a horse race victory by Eumenes II of Pergamon at the Panathenaic games in 178 B.C. The Propylaia The Propylaia were designed by Mnesikles between 437-432 B.C. The Propylaia are well preserved in their structure, with the stylobate in blue Eleusinian marble and the superstructure in Pentelic marble. The design and construction work focused on proportionally and aesthetically harmonizing the Propylaia with the temple dedicated to the goddess Athena. The design is a tribute to Mnesikles' architectural genius. A Doric hexastyle front opened onto a long entrance passage, divided into three parts by two rows of slender Ionic columns. Pinakotheke The northern wing designed as a banquet hall, was later transformed into a museum-sanctuary area, the Pinakotheke that housed votive paintings offered to the goddess. One can only try to imagine today the huge series of works of art dedicated to Athena on show for ancient visitors from the Propylaia up to the open space in front of it. The Parthenon The Parthenon, by far the greatest masterpiece of Greek architecture, was built entirely in marble. The marble used for the structure was Pentelic, while the sculptures were in Pariah marble. The structure was built at the site of an earlier temple, the Archaic hekatompedon ("31 meters long temple"). A first attempt at reconstruction was interrupted by the Persian sack of the acropolis, and some scholars feel that a second project under Cimon preceded the Periclean structure that symbolized the political, civil and religious identity of Athens. Built between 448 and 438 B.C., from designs by the architects Callicrates and Ictinus, it still stands in all its splendor, despite its travailed past: it was sacked by the Christians after the Edict of Theodosios I, and transformed into a church in the 6^th century, into a mosque in the 15^th, and a powder magazine in the 17^th, when a cannonball ignited the warehoused gunpowder, which exploded and blasted the building's southern side. The Erectheion The Erectheion, as the temple of Athena Polias ("patron of the city"), has been called by that name for centuries. The name derives from Erectheus, the name of a mythical Attic king as well as one of the names of Poseidon ("the shaker"). The temple was built between 421 and 407 or 405 B.C., to replace the old temple of the patron goddess (6^th century B.C.). The Erectheion that was designed by Mnesikles, has an unusual plan in order to accommodate the requirements of many cults, some of which date back to ancient times. The elegance of its Ionic contours are among the highest expressions of Classical art. The eastern pronaos hexastyle provided access to one of the two cellae (the other was accessible from the northern pronaos). The wooden cult statue of Athena Polias, the altars of Poseidon Erectheus, Zeus Hypatos, Hephaistos, of the hero, the tombs of Erectheus and Kekrops, to name the most important, all had to be accommodated. Odeon of Herods Atticus A scenic theater complex donated to the city of Athens in 161 B.C. by the wealthy orator in memory of his wife Annia Regilla. In ancient times, the grandiose concert hall was covered with a roof supported by beams of Lebanese cedar, the most prized timber in antiquity. The semi-circular cavea (86 meters in diameter) is in excellent condition. It is paneled in Hymettus marble and is horizontally divided into two sectors with five cunei below and ten above the diazoma (horizontal passageway intersecting with the vertical steps). The orchestra with its marble flooring and the frame of the three story Roman skene, is also well preserved. Stoa of Eumenes The long stoa of Eumenes II featuring a 163 meters long Doric-Ionic-Pergamenian colonnade, leads to the theater of Dionysus. The stoa was apparently built in the 2^nd century B.C., to provide shelter to spectators in the case of bad weather. Theater of Dionysus The theater itself was built in the 5^th century B.C. to host the drama competitions during the great Dionysian festivals in honor of the patron deity of the dramatic arts, venerated in the sanctuary in front of the theater. The Olympieion Temple of Zeus Olympios This is one of the city's most ancient religious buildings, the colossal temple of Zeus Olympios, part of which still stands in the wide temenos accessible through a propylon hexastyle in the northeastern sector. Already of grandiose proportions at the beginning of the 6th century B.C., it was re-founded a few decades later by the Pisistratids who decided on a macrotectonic structure along Asian lines. The temple was re-designed in the Corinthian style with a dipteral plan and dimensions even more imposing under Antiochos IV of Syria, who entrusted the work to the Roman architect Marcus Cossutius (175-164 B.C.). Hadrian's unknown architect faithfully elaborated on this design to build the largest Corinthian temple in the ancient world (110 x 44 meters). Monument of Lysicrates The monument was built in 335 B.C. This is an elegant pseudo-monopteral Corinthian structure on a high plinth, with walls and decoration alternately in pentelic and hymettus marble and low relief ornaments depicting Dionysian motifs, including the famous myth of a god changing pirates into dolphins. The Roman Agora The area features a large (about 170 sq meters). Roman high imperial public latrine for the convenience of the vendors in the nearby market square. The structure features a large hall with marble flooring and a central atrium tetrastyle to allow air and sunlight in. The Agora "Tower of the Winds" The tower, a jewel of late Hellenistic architecture, is an octagonal building with two entrance porches in prothyron distyle, one to the northwest, the other to the northeast. The structure was built in the first century B.C. by Andronikos of kyrrha and served as a hydraulic clock and wind indicator. The Colonnades This is the impressive and severe elegance of the Doric western propylaeum of the Roman agora, made from pentelic marble and decorated with a classical frieze of metopes and triglyphs. The Greek Agora Stoa of Attalus II On the eastern side of the square, stands the modern reconstruction - by the American Archaeological school of Athens - of a large stoa built by Attalus II of Pergamon in the 2^nd century B.C. Temple of Hephaistos (Theseion) Designed during the first half of the 5^th century B.C., perhaps under Cimon, but built at the same time as the Parthenon, the structure in pentelic marble, has a plan about 32 x 14 meters, with a peristatis of 6 x 13 columns. Both in plan and in structure, it incorporates a combination of early Classical architectural elements together with features borrowed from the Parthenon. For instance, while the pronaos and opisthodomos are deep, the cella is very similar to that of the Parthenon. Remains of the Roman Odeon Back to Greece Index