Acropolis means literally "upper (or outer) city" in Greek. To most people "The Acropolis" refers to the one in Athens, but they actually existed in many ancient Greek towns and cities. In Athens the Acropolis is the the citadel on the high steep-sided rocky hill in the centre of the modern city.
There is some evidence of habitation on the Acropolis up to 4,000 years BC, but most of the ancient structures found up there today were built about 400 BC, overseen by the Greek statesman Pericles. The most famous building is the Parthenon, a large temple which today has been partially restored to help people appreciate its original size and shape. There are also numerous other buildings and structures, including the "Herodeon" amphitheatre which is still regularly used for performances today.
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| Looking out over Athens, with the Herodeon theatre in the foreground. |
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| The seating of the Herodeon has been fully restored, in marble. |
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| This small temple of Nike, goddess of Victory, stands above the entrance to the Acropolis. |
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| Ave and our tour group. Not many men in this group - in fact just me! |
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| Ave describes the 9 metre high bronze statue of Athena which stood here in ancient times. |
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| Sue by the Erechtheum, a small temple near the Parthenon (below). |
The legend goes that the gods Athena and Poseidon competed to decide which of the their names would become the name of this city. Each was asked to offer a gift to the people, and the city would be named after the giver of the best gift. Poseidon struck the ground and a salt water spring appeared; in response Athena offered the first olive tree. The olive tree with its fruit, oil, and timber was judged the winner, as we know, because the city is of course "Athens".
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| The view out to the north east, where our hotel lies in those streets below. |
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| Looking west across the top of the Acropolis. |
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| The main feature - the Parthenon. This is as close as you can get. |
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| Down there is the site of the Temple of Zeus, which we visited later. |
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| Archaeologists working to classify the thousands of pieces of stone stacked about the site. |
I was surprised how rough and uneven the whole Acropolis site is. I don't know if it was ever flattened out? Stacked everywhere are piles of stone pieces, waiting to be classified and possibly used in the restoration work. This work is limited by the funds available, especially as Greece is still recovering slowly from a deep financial crisis.
Finally before leaving Athens for the first part of our road trip (to Meteora) we visited the Temple of Olympian Zeus near the centre, just a small part of which remains. This 100 by 40 metre temple was started by Greeks about 400 BC but was actually completed by the romans about 600 years later! The remaining cluster of huge columns represents just one small corner of the original temple. It was much larger than the Parthenon.
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| The "small" remaining section of the Temple of Olympian Zeus. |
