Top Photos Of The Parthenon Taken By Me

The Parthenon is the most popular thing to see in Athens with around two million visiting every year. Perhaps the most famous building in the world, the Parthenon, is the epitome of ancient Greece. Built as an expression of ancient Athen’s glory, it remains the city’s emblem to this day.

Situated on top of the Acropolis of Athens, it is dedicated to the goddess Athena, whom the people of Athens worshipped and considered their patroness.

Construction of the temple began in 447 BC and was completed in 438 BC, although decoration of the building continued until 432 BC.

For a time, it served as a treasury, and around 590 AD was converted into a Christian church dedicated to the Virgin Mary. After the Ottoman conquest, the Parthenon was turned into a mosque in the early 1460s. 

On September 26th 1687, an Ottoman ammunition dump inside the building was ignited by Venetian bombardment during a siege of the Acropolis. The resulting explosion severely damaged the Parthenon and its sculptures. 

From 1800 to 1803, The 7th Earl of Elgin removed some of the surviving sculptures, now known as the Elgin Marbles.

The Parthenon itself replaced an older temple of Athena, which historians call the Pre-Parthenon or Older Parthenon, that was demolished in the Persian invasion of 480 BC. 

The Parthenon is regarded as an enduring symbol of Ancient Greece, democracy and Western civilization and one of the world’s most significant cultural monuments. Like most Greek temples, the Parthenon served a practical purpose as the city treasury. Its decorative sculptures are considered some of the high points of Greek art.

To the Athenians who built it, the Parthenon, and other Periclean monuments of the Acropolis, were seen fundamentally as a celebration of Hellenic victory over the Persian invaders and as a thanksgiving to the gods for that victory.

Since 1975, numerous large-scale restoration projects have been undertaken to ensure the structural stability of the temple.