The Athens acropolis

Posted On: Oct 7th, 2015 at 18:56

Greece
Day eight: Athens
I could not post last night because the WiFi was playing up in my hotel, but I’m sorry to say you won’t get a respite from my boring dialogues.
After seven blissful days of practically being alone in the wilderness I have found Athens to be quite a shock to the system. It’s a massive city with a total population of around 4 million, which is quite something when you think the entire population of Greece is just 11 million.
The acropolis was my first port of call and there are no words to describe the astonishing architecture and engineering atop that incredible fortress. Unfortunately I do have words about the amount of tourists that pile through the gates and it’s almost impossible to find a quiet spot to enjoy the place. Certainly any hopes of ‘feeling’ are impossible to achieve. I found myself people watching as much as admiring the amazing temples, and I find it incredible how some people behave. In one astonishing incident, I was sitting on a bench admiring one of the greatest architectural feats mankind has ever created – the erechtheion – when two women in their twenties came walking past. As they came towards me I could hear their conversation… And then I could not believe what happened next. One of the girls turned her camera to the temple and WITHOUT even looking at it, clicked the shutter button and they continued walking on.
They never looked at the temple. Not once.
And what were they talking about? Facebook…
I wonder what they will say when people ask them about their experience walking on one of mankind’s greatest achievements? And will that photo just come out as a blurred image? Never mind.
Then it was on to the equally massive Temple of Olympian Zeus. The columns here are huge and the temple must have been a massive undertaking. This temple is much later than the Parthenon as it employs Corinthian Order columns in its design. Construction actually began in the 6th Century BC but it wasn’t finished until the 2nd Century AD, hence the later Corinthian columns as opposed to the Parthenon’s Doric columns. Corinthian columns weren’t created until the end of the 5th Century BC.
My final main stop of the day was the original Olympic Stadium, known as the Panathenaic Stadium. The original stadium was used from around 566 BC and was basically two natural hills with a track in the middle. Later wooden seats were added, but in 330 BC a real stadium was built entirely of marble. The stadium has been abandoned and rebuilt many times, but the current stadium was rebuilt in 1896 to its original design of marble seating and holds 50,000 spectators. It is the only marble stadium in the world and it was built solely to bring back the Olympic Games to the world, which continue to this very day. And long may they continue.

The Parthenon – one of mankind’s greatest architectural achievements

Construction began in 447 BC and the temple was opened in 432 BC. It took nine years to erect the temple and five years to decorate it with friezes and statues