The Acropolis of Athens, the Best Known Acropolis in the World

What would a visit to Athens be without going to the Acropolis to see the Parthenon? And still people ask why the Partheon is so important. It’s because it was the most perfect building built by the world's most advanced civilization.

The Acropolis of Athens is the best known acropolis (Gr. akros, akron, edge, extremity + polis, city, pl. acropoleis) in the world. Although there are many other acropoleis in Greece, the significance of the Acropolis of Athens is such that it is commonly known as The Acropolis without qualification. The Acropolis was formally proclaimed as the pre-eminent monument on the European Cultural Heritage list of monuments on 26 March 2007. The Acropolis is a flat-topped rock which rises 150 m (490 ft) above sea level in the city of Athens, with a surface area of about 3 hectares. It was also known as Cecropia, after the legendary serpent-man, Kekrops or Cecrops, the first Athenian king.

The Acropolis rock is part of a Late Cretaceous limestone ridge (Higgins) that cuts through the Attica plateau in the northeast to the southwest axis and includes the Likavitos hill, the Philopappos (Museum) hill, the hill of the Nymphs, and the Pnyx.

The rock rises from the basin about 70 meters and levels to a flat top 300 meters long by 150 meters wide. Its flat top is due to the numerous landfills that have accommodated construction of fortifications and temples since the Mycenaean era. With its many shallow caves, the abundant percolating water springs and steep slopes, the Acropolis was a prime location for habitation and worship location for Neolithic man.

History

The greatest and finest sanctuary of ancient Athens, dedicated primarily to its patron, the goddess Athena, dominates the centre of the modern city from the rocky crag known as the Acropolis. The most celebrated myths of ancient Athens, its greatest religious festivals, earliest cults and several decisive events in the city's history are all connected to this sacred precinct. The monuments of the Acropolis stand in harmony with their natural setting. These unique masterpieces of ancient architecture combine different orders and styles of Classical art in a most innovative manner and have influenced art and culture for many centuries. The Acropolis of the fifth century BC is the most accurate reflection of the splendour, power and wealth of Athens at its greatest peak, the golden age of Pericles.

Most of the major temples were rebuilt under the leadership of Pericles during the Golden Age of Athens (460–430 BC). Phidias, a great Athenian sculptor, and Ictinus and Callicrates, two famous architects, were responsible for the reconstruction. During the 5th century BC, the Acropolis gained its final shape. After winning at Eurymedon in 468 BC, Cimon and Themistocles ordered the reconstruction of southern and northern walls, and Pericles entrusted the building of the Parthenon to Ictinus and Phidias.

In 437 BC Mnesicles started building the Propylaea, monumental gates with columns of Pentelic marble, partly built upon the old propylaea of Pisistratus. These colonnades were almost finished in the year 432 BC and had two wings, the northern one serving as picture gallery. At the same time, south of the propylaea, building of the small Ionic Temple of Athena Nike commenced. After an interruption caused by the Peloponnesian War, the temple was finished in the time of Nicias' peace, between 421 BC and 415 BC.

During the same period the building of the Erechtheum, a combination of sacred precincts including the temples of Athena Polias, Poseidon, Erechtheus, Cecrops, Herse, Pandrosos and Aglauros, with its so-called the Kore Porch (or Caryatids' balcony), was begun.

Between the temple of Athena Nike and the Parthenon there was the temenos of Artemis Brauronia or Brauroneion, the goddess represented as a bear and worshipped in the deme of Brauron. The archaic xoanon of the goddess and a statue made by Praxiteles in the 4th century BC were both in the sanctuary.

Behind the Propylaea, Phidias' gigantic bronze statue of Athena Promachos ("she who fights in the front line"), built between 450 BC and 448 BC, dominated. The base was 1.50 m high, while the total height of the statue was 9 m. The goddess held a lance whose gilt tip could be seen as a reflection by crews on ships rounding Cape Sounion, and a giant shield on the left side, decorated by Mys with images of the fight between the Centaurs and the Lapiths. Other monuments that have left almost nothing visible to the present day are the Chalkotheke, the Pandroseion, Pandion's sanctuary, Athena's altar, Zeus Polieus's sanctuary and, from Roman times, the circular temple of Augustus and Rome.

Site Monuments

Parthenon

The Parthenon, dedicated by the Athenians to Athena Parthenos, the patron of their city, is the most magnificent creation of Athenian democracy at the height of its power. It is also the finest monument on the Acropolis in terms of both conception and execution. Built between 447 and 438 BC, as part of the greater Periklean building project, this so-called Periklean Parthenon (Parthenon III) replaced an earlier marble temple (Parthenon II), begun after the victory at the battle of Marathon at approximately 490 BC and destroyed by the Persians in 480 BC. This temple had replaced the very first Parthenon (Parthenon I) of c. 570 BC. The Periklean Parthenon was designed by architects Iktinos and Kallikrates, while the sculptor Pheidias supervised the entire building program and conceived the temple's sculptural decoration and chryselephantine statue of Athena.

Erechtheion


The elegant building known as the Erechtheion, on the north side of the sacred rock of the Acropolis, was erected in 421-406 BC as a replacement of an earlier temple dedicated to Athena Polias, the so-called ''Old temple''. The name ''Erechtheion'', mentioned only by Pausanias (1, 26, 5), derives from Erechtheus, the mythical king of Athens, who was worshipped there. Other texts refer to the building simply as ''temple'' or ''old temple''. The building owes its unusual shape to the irregularity of the terrain - there is a three-metre difference in height between the eastern and western parts - and the multiple cults it was designed to accommodate. The eastern part of the building was dedicated to Athena Polias, while the western part served the cult of Poseidon-Erechtheus and held the altars of Hephaistus and Voutos, brother of Erechtheus. This is where, according to the myth, Athena's sacred snake lived. The sanctuary also contained the grave of Kekrops and the traces of the dispute between Athena and Poseidon for the possession of the city of Athens.

Propylaea



The Propylaia of the Athenian Acropolis were built on the west side of the hill, where the gate of the Mycenaean fortification once stood. The first propylon, or gate, was constructed in the age of Peisistratos (mid-sixth century BC), after the Acropolis had become a sanctuary dedicated to Athena. A new propylon, built in 510-480 BC, was destroyed by the Persians in 480 BC and repaired after the end of the Persian Wars, during the fortification of the Acropolis by Themistokles and Kimon. The monumental Propylaia admired by modern visitors were part of the great Periklean building program. They were erected in 437-432 BC, after the completion of the Parthenon, by architect Mnesikles. The original building plan was particularly daring both in architectural and artistic terms, but was never completed.

Temple of Athena Nike


The temple of Athena Nike stands at the southeast edge of the sacred rock atop a bastion, which in Mycenaean times protected the entrance to the Acropolis. The Classical temple, designed by architect Kallikrates and built in 426-421 BC, succeeded earlier temples also dedicated to Athena Nike. The first one of these, a mid-sixth century BC wooden temple was destroyed by the Persians in 480 BC. The eschara, the altar believed to have supported the cult statue of the goddess, dates to this period. Under Kimon, c. 468 BC, a small temple of tufa was erected around the base of the statue and a new altar was built outside the temple. The foundations of these early temples and altars are preserved inside the bastion under the floor of the Classical structure. Pausanias (1, 22, 4) refers to this temple as that of the Apteros Nike, or Wingless Victory, and mentions that the cult statue of the goddess had no wings so that she would never leave Athens. Apart from the cult of Athena Nike other, earlier cults were also practiced on this site. On the west side of the bastion was a Mycenaean double-apsed shrine and on the east side, the pre-Classical shrines of the Graces and of Hekate Epipyrgidia. The construction of the Classical temple of Athena Nike was part of the Periklean building project. Several inscriptions, mostly decrees of the city of Athens, provide information on this particular part of the project.

Temple of Rome and Augustus

The temple of Rome and Augustus was erected in the late first century BC east of the Parthenon or of the Erechtheion. Several architectural elements of the building were found east of the Parthenon and many more were brought here after their discovery elsewhere. Nearby are the irregular tufa foundations (approximately 10.50x13 metres) of a building generally considered to be the Roman temple. Another theory, however, based on the construction technique of these foundations and on depictions of the Acropolis on Roman coins, places the temple east of the Erechtheion.

The inscription on the temple's epistyle mentions that the building was dedicated by the city of Athens to the goddess Rome and to Octavian Augustus. Pausanias does not mention the building during his visit to the Acropolis, possibly because it did not present any interest at his time. The small, circular temple had a single row of nine Ionic columns and no interior wall, the entablature and conical roof being entirely of white marble. The fact that the columns imitate those of the Erechtheion may indicate that the temple was built by the same architect who repaired the Erechtheion after it was damaged by fire.

Old temple of Athena




The earliest temple to Athena Polias on the Acropolis, called 'the Old temple' in ancient literary sources, was located between the Erechtheion and the Parthenon. It was probably built in the third quarter of the sixth century BC, on the site of an earlier, Geometric temple and of the even earlier Mycenaean palace. The Old temple was damaged by the Persians in 480 BC, but was repaired soon after; parts of its entablature were incorporated in the Acropolis fortification wall. The temple was damaged again in 406 BC after the completion of the Erechtheion and was never rebuilt. Traces of the temple's altar to Athena are visible on the bedrock, east of the building.

The Old temple was a Doric, peripteral structure with six columns on the short sides and twelve on the long sides. The interior arrangement was quite unusual. The east part of the temple consisted of a distyle pronaos with antae and a naos divided into three naves by two rows of columns. Inside the naos was the wooden cult statue (xoanon) of the goddess Athena. The east part of the temple consisted of three rooms, each dedicated to the worship of Poseidon-Erechtheus, Hephaistus and Boutes. The marble pediments of the Gigantomachy, displayed in the Acropolis Museum, and a sime with lion and ram's heads probably belonged to this temple. The metopes, cornices and roof tiles were also of marble, while the rest of the temple was built of limestone.

The temple was unearthed in 1885 and W. D?rpfeld was the first to identify it. Only the foundations of its south side, towards the Erechtheion, are visible today, along with two stone column bases from the Geometric temple.

Monumen Stonehenge in English

Stonehenge is a monument stone at the time of ancient man and bronze Neolithikum which is located close to Amesbury about 13 kilometers (8 miles) northwest Salisbury Plain, Wilshire Province, England. Stonehenge has been defined by UNESCO as one of seven world wonder.

Stonehenge itself consists of thirty upright stones with a very large size (each stone on the first uniform height of 10 meters with each stone heft 26 tons), all stones are arranged with a vertical form of a vertical circle known as megalithikum.
According to the British Archaeologists, Coplan Jhon Richard Atkinson (1950), Stonehenge was built roughly around 5000 years ago, construction itself is divided into several phases (I, II, IIIA, IIIb, and IIIc). Of course, with many stages in the development phases of Stonehenge, indicating that the building requires a very long time in the process, from the transportation of the stone to the engraving on each the stone.
Stonehenge complex was built in several phases of development during the year 2000 and during the period of activity is running. This is evidenced by finding a dead body the Saxon was trained and buried in the monument, and the possibility of dead bodies came to the centuries-7 M.

Stonehenge I
Monument first circle consists of cliffs and rounded trench measuring 115 meters (320 feet) diameter and one with the entrance in the northeast. This phase is about 3100 BC. Area on the outside of the circle there are 59 holes, known as the Aubrey holes for the Jhon Aubrey, archeologists of the seventh century is a pity that the first person to know the holes are. Twenty five of the Aubrey holes known have gray on the two centuries after its foundation Stonehenge. Thirty corpses ashes placed in the trench area and other parts of the circle in the Stonehenge area. Neolitikum end of the pottery have been found together provide evidence of this date. A single stone monolith that does not create a slippery known as' heel stone '(Heel Stone) is situated outside the entrance.

Stonehenge II
Proof of the second phase is no longer visible. However, evidence from several holes from the pole this time period to prove there is some wood building that was built in a circle around the area early third millennium BC. Some effects board found placed at the entrance. This phase is the same as the place that is located adjacent Woodhenge.

Stonehenge IIIA
Research shows that around 2600 BC, two crescent curve of the hole is created (known as hole Q and R), which was unearthed in the middle of location. Hole in the 80 vertical blue stone brought from Preseli hills, 250 miles in Wales. Stones are formed into a pillar of the examination, most of dolerite with rock type, but also including examples of rhyolite stone, volcanic tufa, and myolite seberat 4 tons.
Entrance be dilated at this time make it consistent with the direction of the sun rising mid-summer sunset and mid-spring period. Monuments are left without a prepared, while the blue stone appears to be moving in the hole and the Q and R are closed. This is made possible in the phase IIIb Stonehenge. This monument appears to be beyond the terms of Avebury in importance at the end of this period and the Amesbury Archer, found in 2002 three miles to the south, imagine how Stonehenge look at this. Stonehenge IIIA is said build by the Beaker

Stonehenge IIIb
In the next phases of activity at the end of the third millennium BC found 74 large Sarsen stones taken from the query 20 miles north of the location in Marlborough Downs. Stones are formed a connection with the pivot joint and was established before 30 stone pillar shape roundness measuring 30 meters diameter with a 29 stone roof (lintel) above. Each stone cob 25 tons of weight and was clearly impressed with the goal of making. Inside the sphere is located five thon stone sarsen processed and prepared in the form of a horseshoe. This large stone, five and ten uprise stone beam, with each weight to 50 tons of a certain connection with the complex. Carved dagger and ax heads found in the sarsen.

Stonehenge IIIc
Next in bronze era, stone blue seems was portrait from originally, in the sphere between the two pole sarsen and also in the form of a horseshoe in the middle, follow the procedure sarsen layout. Although he seems to be one phase of a stunning development built Stonehenge IIIc inaccurate proportionate Stonehenge IIIb, blue stone that appears to be portrait does not have a solid foundation and starting trees. One of the fallen stones have been given names that are less appropriate as the Stone Worship (Altar Stone). Two sphere also dug holes in the stone outside the sphere, known as Y and Z. hole

Stonehenge IV
Around 1100 BC, Avenue road through far more than two miles to the River Avon is not even clear who is involved in this additional development work.
Heel stone (The Heel Stone) in a period known as the Friar's Heel. Folklore, which can not be originally from the early seventeen century, recounts the origin of this stone.
Some of the claims heels Friar ( "Friar's Heel") is the change in name "Freya's He-ol" or "Freya Sul", from the name of god and the German Freya Welsh word for "laluan" and "sun day" according to the sequence.

Statu Of Easter Island in Chole

Easter Island is a volcanic island located in Polynesia, South Pacific Ocean and 3700 km from the east coast of Chile, with a subtropical so climate. Origin of volcanoes referring to combine the three volcanoes. This is the oldest Poike, with 3 million years, followed by the volcano Rano Raraku, from 2.5 million years old, and finally the youngest, named Maung Terevaka (12,000 to 10,000 years). The island occupies a region 390 km ². The island's economic activities of agriculture (wheat, corn, tropical fruits and yams), development of roads and tourism. Rapanui in the local language, Rapa Nui is called "Big Island," Te Pito te henúa a "world center" and Mata ki te range "Eyes fixed on the heavens." Island with the famous statue of the great stone which is known as Moais (giant heads carved in volcanic stone), statues and wooden board that contains hieroglyphic inscriptions. One of the great mysteries of the "Moais," is the fact that all belong to the same species and is found only on the island.

In 1722, the Flemish master Jacob Roggeveen, together with the sailors, landed 3 of their ships on the beach before the island on Easter Sunday. Thus, on 5 April, they were baptized with the name of Easter Island. But have found the island centuries ago, there is evidence that people who come from several islands in the Pacific Ocean, may Mangareva and the Marquesas Islands. They say that Easter Island is part of the lost continent under water.

Giza Piramid in Mesir

Great Giza pyramid is the oldest and largest pyramid of the three pyramid on the Giza Nekropolis and trusted that the pyramid was built as a tomb for Fourth dynasty Egyptian Pharaoh, Khufu (Χεωψ, Cheops) and constructed for more than 20 years and is estimated to take place around the year 2560 SM. Pyramid is sometimes referred to as Khufu Piramida. Regions or Giza Giza El Gizeh, or also known or El Gizeh (Al Jizah) is the area that is located in the area near Cairo (Egypt), That pyramid is found here is that compared to the largest pyramid in the world.

Giza pyramid or the pyramid noble lie in the sand carpet has a temperature more than 35 degrees Celsius the pyramid consists of 3 large plus one Sphinx. Third is the pyramid Khufu (Cheops), Khafre (Rakhaef / Chephren) and Menkaure (Mycerinus) plus three small pyramid. Each pyramid of Cheops and Mycerinus have Chepren similarity Interior.

There are king room, queen room, the door of the tunnel (which is one quarter of diameter with 40 meters long). Most of the century is renowned as farmers. they use the river valley to be nil as their waters.

Giza pyramid complex built around the ancient nation of Egypt 5000 years ago, has a wide area of comparability between the distance of St Peter (Rome), Florence cathedral (Milan) to the St. Paul (London). Also believed to set in stone when the Giza pyramid together can create a wall 3 meters high as 0.3 meters with a thickness that can encompass the whole of France.

If compared with the Empire State Building in New York, This pyramid is larger 30-fold and can even be seen from the week. Meanwhile, Egypt older nation building in 30 years. Not to mention how to move from the rock and stone of pyramid into a high (some say to create a structure or slope as in the whorl of screw and then is painted with limestone on the outside layer).

There is a mention that the stone is a stone molding results, construction of accurate center of gravity and center objects. So, as expressed previously have said that that was built by UFO that connecting with portrait pyramid is Mars. There is a conjecture that the pyramid was built by men who were the future in the past.

There are also pyramid-related constellation Orion cluster with review of three lie stars of Giza pyramid and Mayapun Piramida believed to have a location and position of the same cluster based on the constellation Orion stars. In addition, also believed to have room under the Sphinx (called off Hall Records) which is the secret key to the Zep Tepi of a golden era past, when the pyramid at Giza is made.

According to research from scientists and Archeology, creating a pyramid of materials taken from several places. For example, limestone from Tura, granite from Aswan, Sinai and copper from the wood for the case of Lebanon which all transported through the Nile River. And labors who workers die average the age of 30 years as a spinal injury due to take a very heavy burden. Then there was also a way to help emergency workers to injury. How ever people say, know The Giza Pyramid is being a new seven world wonder in the world.

7 Phenomenal Wonders of the Natural World

The classical natural wonders are huge and hard to miss - vast canyons, giant mountains and the like. Many of the most fantastic natural phenomena, however, are also least easy to spot. Some are incredibly rare while others are located in hard-to-reach parts of the planet. From moving rocks to mammatus clouds and red tides to fire rainbows, here are seven of the most spectacular phenomenal wonders of the natural world.

1) Sailing Stones


(Images via: f8BeThere and Ian Parker)

The mysterious moving stones of the packed-mud desert of Death Valley have been a center of scientific controversy for decades. Rocks weighing up to hundreds of pounds have been known to move up to hundreds of yards at a time. Some scientists have proposed that a combination of strong winds and surface ice account for these movements. However, this theory does not explain evidence of different rocks starting side by side and moving at different rates and in disparate directions. Moreover, the physics calculations do not fully support this theory as wind speeds of hundreds of miles per hour would be needed to move some of the stones.


2) Columnar Basalt


(Images via: Centripetalnotion, Habitas and Strahlen)

When a thick lava flow cools it contracts vertically but cracks perpendicular to its directional flow with remarkable geometric regularity - in most cases forming a regular grid of remarkable hexagonal extrusions that almost appear to be made by man. One of the most famous such examples is the Giant’s Causeway on the coast of Ireland (shown above) though the largest and most widely recognized would be Devil’s Tower in Wyoming. Basalt also forms different but equally fascinating ways when eruptions are exposed to air or water.
3) Blue Holes



(Images via: AEAdvisor, BelizeDiving and ScienceRay)

Blue holes are giant and sudden drops in underwater elevation that get their name from the dark and foreboding blue tone they exhibit when viewed from above in relationship to surrounding waters. They can be hundreds of feet deep and while divers are able to explore some of them they are largely devoid of oxygen that would support sea life due to poor water circulation - leaving them eerily empty. Some blue holes, however, contain ancient fossil remains that have been discovered, preserved in their depths.


4) Red Tides




(Images via: Carleton, CleanWaterNetwork and UMN)

Red tides are also known as algal blooms - sudden influxes of massive amounts of colored single-cell algae that can convert entire areas of an ocean or beach into a blood red color. While some of these can be relatively harmless, others can be harbingers of deadly toxins that cause the deaths of fish, birds and marine mammals. In some cases, even humans have been harmed by red tides though no human exposure are known to have been fatal. While they can be fatal, the constituent phytoplankton in ride tides are not harmful in small numbers.


5) Ice Circles


(Images via Panoramio, CrystalLinks, CropCircleAnswers and DailyMail)

While many see these apparently perfect ice circles as worthy of conspiracy theorizing, scientists generally accept that they are formed by eddies in the water that spin a sizable piece of ice in a circular motion. As a result of this rotation, other pieces of ice and flotsam wear relatively evenly at the edges of the ice until it slowly forms into an essentially ideal circle. Ice circles have been seen with diameters of over 500 feet and can also at times be found in clusters and groups at different sizes as shown above.
6) Mammatus Clouds


(Images via: John Olson and the DNR)

True to their ominous appearance, mammatus clouds are often harbingers of a coming storm or other extreme weather system. Typically composed primarily of ice, they can extend for hundreds of miles in each direction and individual formations can remain visibly static for ten to fifteen minutes at a time. While they may appear foreboding they are merely the messengers - appearing around, before or even after severe weather.




7) Fire Rainbows


(Images via: GinaCobb, Unwired and UMN)

A circumhorizontal fire rainbow arc occurs at a rare confluence of right time and right place for the sun and certain clouds. Crystals within the clouds refract light into the various visible waves of the spectrum but only if they are arrayed correctly relative to the ground below. Due to the rarity with which all of these events happen in conjunction with one another, there are relatively few remarkable photos of this phenomena.