Acropolis and the Parthenon

The rock

The hill was inhabited as early as the 4th millennium BC

The Acropolis is an ancient citadel on a rocky outcrop above Athens. There is evidence that the hill was inhabited as early as the 4th millennium BC. The flattish-topped rock rises 150 m above sea level and has a surface area of about 3 ha.

150 mheight of the rock above sea level

The Persians

The Persians burned the Older Parthenon in 480 BC

The Older Parthenon was still under construction when the Persians invaded and sacked the city in 480 BC. The building was burned and looted. The Athenians later built its unfluted column drums, triglyphs and metopes into the new northern wall of the Acropolis, where they can still be seen today.

Pericles

Pericles had the Parthenon and the other main temples rebuilt

Most of the major temples, including the Parthenon, were rebuilt by order of Pericles during the so-called Golden Age of Athens. Phidias, a sculptor, and the architects Ictinus and Callicrates were responsible. In 437 BC Mnesicles started building the Propylaea, a monumental gate at the western end of the Acropolis.

Erechtheion

The Erechtheion has a porch held up by huge female figures

The Erechtheion was built in Pentelic marble between 421 and 406 BC to a complex plan that took account of the extremely uneven ground. Unusually, it has two porches, one of them supported by huge female figures, or caryatids.

1687

Gunpowder stored in the Parthenon was hit in the siege of 1687

During the Byzantine period the Parthenon was used as a church dedicated to the Virgin Mary. In 1687 the Venetians besieged the Acropolis in the Morean War. Gunpowder stored in the Parthenon by the Turkish rulers was hit by a Venetian bombardment and exploded, and the buildings were seriously damaged.