1000 Places to See Before You Die 20 - Acropolis, Athens, Greece

You cannot go to Athens and not go to the Acropolis. It is a staple on any sightseeing tour and is likely to be crawling with tourists at any given point in time. Still, it is definitely worth it to brave the masses and see the fortified citadel above the city of Athens for yourself. 

The word acropolis means the highest point of the city, and there are a number of these acropoleis scattered throughout Greece, but the one in Athens is so well known that it is simply called “The Acropolis”. 

There is evidence that the area on the rocky outcropping overlooking the city was inhabited already in the 4th millennium BC, but it was Pericles who started construction on the many famous buildings in the 5th century BC. These famous buildings include the Parthenon, probably the most iconic of the buildings, the Propylaea, the Erechtheion and the Temple of Athena Nike. These buildings were all seriously damaged in 1687 AD when the Venetians had sieged the city and used the Parthenon for gunpowder storage. Unfortunately it was hit by a cannonball with massive damages as a result. 

The main sight of the Acropolis is the Parthenon, as mentioned above. This building is the masterpiece of its time, and the largest building of its kind in Greece. It was dedicated to Athena Parthenos (the virgin Athena), the goddess of the city of Athens. Originally it was painted in vivid colors, like much of the ancient statuary and building elements we see today in plain, white marble. During its lifespan the building was used as a Byzantine church, a Frankish cathedral and an Ottoman mosque, as well as a storage facility, as mentioned above. After the Greek War of Independence, where the Greek revolutionaries defeated the Ottoman invaders in 1832 the Acropolis was “cleansed” of features dating from the Byzantine, Frankish and Ottoman periods in an attempt to restore the monument to its “original” form. 

In 1975 a large restoration project began, and it is almost finished now. The aim of this restoration was to amend the damages and decay caused by age, pollution, destruction and misguided former restorations. This project collected and identified all stone fragments from the area and this original material was used to restore the buildings if at all possible. New marble was only used when this was not possible. All the restorations were made using titanium dowels and is designed to be reversible in case future experts figure out a better way to do things. During the work the colonnades of the Parthenon were restored after the cannonball damage of the 17th century and many of the columns that had been assembled wrongly during earlier work were now assembled correctly. Sections of the roof of the Propylaea were partly restored, some of the roof made with new marble and inlaid with gold and blue inserts as it was originally. 

If you find yourself in Athens a trip to the Acropolis is a must. It is like to be crawling with tourists but fortunately the area is so large that it doesn’t feel too crowded. And the rocky clifftop offers stunning views and a nice breeze to cool you off at the end of the climb. 

To end your visit you can enter the museum and see a number of statues and marble friezes that have been preserved here. 

All facts are from “1000 Places to See Before You Die” by Patricia Schultz and Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acropolis_of_Athens