It's All Greek to Me (Part II)

Hi Everyone,

Since it's starting to feel a little cold outside, it's time for Part II of my summer Greek adventures and as promised, this post is dedicated to two of the shining glories of Athens, the Acropolis and the Ancient Agora. For starters, I would just like to say that Athens, as well as the Acropolis, is beautiful and breathtaking both day and night.

View of Athens and the Acropolis just before dusk.

View of the Acropolis by night.

During summer, it's recommended that you visit the Acropolis site first thing when they open at 8 am to beat the heat and the crowds, but as you probably gathered from my first post, that idea didn't quite fit in with my Greek lifestyle. Since the monument is open until 8 pm, the plan was instead to go to the museum first during the hottest part of the day, then hike to the Acropolis site in the evening. I'm actually glad that I did the visit in that order , not only because I didn't pass out from heat exhaustion, but also because it gave me a great preface of the centuries of history that have taken place on that one hill.

The New Acropolis Museum

The New Acropolis Museum, opened in 2009, lies just at the foot of the ancient monument. The price of admission? Only 5 euros! Seriously, the museum is amazing and us tourists would willingly pay a lot more.

Inside of the contemporary museum: glass and stone.

On Display:

One of my favorite things on display was the silver cup awarded to the marathon winner at the inaugural modern Olympic games in 1896. What makes it even more historic? The victor was a Greek runner, Spyros Louis.  

The "Bréal Cup" awarded to the marathon winner in 1896.

Also in the museum was a "Lego Acropolis", built by a museum in Australia. 120,000 Lego bricks and 300 hours later, Ryan McNaught's masterpiece was finished:

Just as important as what is on display in the Acropolis museum is what is NOT on display. In the early 19th century, when the region was still under Turkish rule, a British ambassador named Lord Elgin requested permission to remove some of the stones with inscriptions from the Acropolis. Given the go ahead, Elgin took this to mean that he could remove two-thirds of the Parthenon friezes and half of the Acropolis marbles, taking them all back to England with him. 

Since then, these missing pieces have been housed at the British Museum in London. However, the new Acropolis museum was designed to have the missing pieces returned so that the collection can be displayed in its entirety. For now, the "missing marbles" are marked by replicas or simple holes in the collection (see below) until museum politics subside.

The original Erechtheion Caryatids (5 of 6). The missing sister still resides in the British Museum. 

Close-up with one of the original Caryatids.

What also impressed me about the design of the museum was the way the frieze pieces, panels, and sculptures of the Parthenon were laid out to follow the original blue print. And thanks to the floor-to-ceiling windows, you can look upon the actual Parthenon at the same time and compare the perfectly aligned display. 

And the icing on the cake? If you end up with museum brain after an hour or so, you can head over to the café and enjoy a coffee with a pretty great view.  

Museum café looking out onto the Acropolis.

The Acropolis

aka the Original "Top of the Hill"

After spending the early part of the day at the museum and then wandering around the city, I headed up to the top of the Acropolis around 6 pm, giving me 2 hours to see both the Acropolis and the Ancient Agora before closing time. Ready set go.

Acropolis means "High City" in Greek. Under the influence of Pericles, the majority of the structures on the Acropolis were built between 461 and 429 BC. What did the layout look like 2000 years ago? Click here to find out.  Over time the Acropolis has seen a lot of transformations, with the Parthenon once serving as a Byzantine church and even a garrison for gun powder storage during the Ottoman empire.  

While I walked up the 512 feet to the summit, I first encountered the Theatre of Herod Atticus (which still hosts performances), built in 161 AD as an homage to his late wife.

Theatre of Herod Atticus.

Next up was the "Propylaea", a building constructed for passing from the mortal world to the spiritual world. 

The Propylaea.

As you pass through the Propylaea, the Temple of Athena Nike lies just to the right. This small temple was built between 427 and 424 BC to celebrate peace with Persia. Due to pollution build-up over time, the temple was actually dismantled, laser-cleaned to remove the generations of soot, and then re-installed. 

Temple of Athena Nike.

Back side of the Propylaea.

Side note: after I finally finished hiking to the top of the hill  (~15 min) I was impressed to find that there is now an elevator allowing handicap access to the Parthenon and the top of the Acropolis. I'm happy to know that now this historic site can be shared with everyone :)

Moving around the site, I next saw the Erechtheion with its famous Caryatids (casts of the originals which reside in the museum). Although it doesn't match up to the Parthenon in terms of grandeur, this smaller temple has a captivating legend. Poseidon and Athena competed to win rights to the city and while Poseidon was able to produce a spring of water on this site by thrusting his trident into a rock, Athena created an olive tree, was declared the winner, and won the right to name the city "Athens". In the picture below, you can see an olive tree still grows where Athena's once stood. 

The Erechtheion with Caryatids and Athena's olive tree.

In addition to all the monuments, the view from the top of the Acropolis was unmatched. 

Lookout on top of the Acropolis with Greek flag flying overhead.

View of Athens from the Acropolis. 

Nice backdrop: the birthplace of Western civilization.

And last but not least...Here is the Parthenon! As you can see, over the centuries it has sustained considerable damage, the greatest of which occurred in 1687 when the Venetians (fighting against the Turks) hit the Parthenon with a mortar, causing the gunpowder stored inside to explode. 

The Eastern face of the Parthenon.

The Parthenon: still beautiful after all these years.

The Ancient Agora

So…I spent a lot of time roaming around the Acropolis and I didn't have as much of a chance as I would have liked to see the Ancient Agora, but I still got to promenade a little and get a feel for the place. The ANCIENT Agora was not just any old meeting point and marketplace. It was the place where Socrates chatted with Plato and where St. Paul carried out some of his mission work. Still trying to wrap my head around that.

The Stoa of Attalos II: Covered portico originally built between 159-138 BC and reconstructed in the 1950s (AD).

The Ayii Apostoloi, the only one of 9 churches remaining in the Agora.

Just as the sun was starting to set and the whistle blew for me to be on my way, I caught a glimpse of the Hephaistion in the distance, the best-preserved ancient Greek temple in the world. While it may not seem as impressive as the Parthenon, it is a little older and still has all of its original columns and pediments intact.  

Ancient Agora and Hephaistion temple in the distance.

The sun set a little too early on my visit to the Ancient Agora, and on my summer holidays in general, but fall is here, the air is crisp, and there are more adventures to be had.

A+,

NTANIEΛ