A Greek Odyssey 1st June 2018

What we are planning to do today is to try to cover all the major sites of central Athens on foot. We walked back up past the Acropolis Museum and on towards the car park where the ascent of the Acropolis hill starts. The road is closed to traffic and we soon realise that the reason is the Acropolis rally is taking place today. I was relieved to learn that it was not a hill climb but a serious 3 day event that takes in a lot of Greece. This is the start of it.

Number 59 coming out of the first corner, so far so good.

We duly started up the hill until we could overlook the Odeon of Herodes Atticus the inspiration for cinemas all over the world. This building is still a performance venue today.

This is how the Lonely Planet guide introduces the Acropolis. "The Acropolis is the most important ancient site in the Western world. Crowned by the Parthenon, it stands sentinel over Athens, visible from almost everywhere within the city. Its monuments and sanctuaries of Pentelic marble gleam white in the midday sun and gradually take on a honey hue as the sun sinks, while at night they stand brilliantly illuminated above the city. A glimpse of this magnificent site cannot fail to exalt your spirit."
Below is the Temple of Athena Nike. We will walk on up the uneven but smoothed marble bedrock where millions have walked before. Approaching the Parthenon building gives me a real tingle of excitement. I have read so much about it and seen so many images, and now the real thing.

The West end with its eight Doric columns and absent, looted, exploded, collapsed pediment.
Restoration is in progress, but where do you stop?

Now the East end with a fragment of the pediment still in place.

The North side with its seventeen columns and constant stream of people treading the Panathenaic Way.

A shot showing some of the details of the East pediment. As you can see very little remains of the original structure. There have been many constructions and deconstructions, seiges and sackings, looting and pillaging, nevermind the conversions to mosques and churches all over the entire site. Remember the "classical" buildings were constructed by Pericles in the C5 BCE.

This is the most sacred part of the Acropolis and is called the Erechtheum. It has various components, facing us is the North porch with its roof supported by six female figures called Caryatids. These are plaster casts, the originals are in the museum, except for one, of course which is in the British museum. Those of you of an architectural bent will spot that the Erechtheum is of the Ionic order compared with the Doric used for the Parthenon.

Looking down from the top of the Acropolis to the East you can see the Temple of Zeus and Hadrian's Arch

Now looking West over the Ancient Agora, an area of markets and workshops. The picture shows the Temple of Hephaestus, the best preserved Doric temple in Greece. Hephaestus was the god of the forge and it was surrounded by foundries and metalwork shops.

Here we are looking across to the Lykavittos Hill. This is the highest point in the Athens baisen. There is a church built to St George on the top and a concealed funicular railway to help you get there.

Walking down through the Ancient Agora one of the most striking buildings you encounter is the Tower of the winds. Built in the C1 BCE this octagonal monument is an ingenious construction that functioned as a sundial, weathervane, waterclock and compass.

We then walked along Ermou a long shopping street/lane. The further east you walked the more upmarket it became. Part way along was this church in the middle of the road. The C11 structure was saved from the bulldozers by the University of Athens. Its dome is supported by four roman columns.

We took a taxi to the start of the funicular railway and rode to the top of the Lykavittos Hill to encounter these views. I have zoomed in a little on the Acropolis.

 Here's a real size view of greater Athens and the Athens baisen.

After the high life we walked back to Syntagma square in time to witness the extraordinary changing of the guard that occurres every hour on the hour. This almost quaint, slightly humerous event is deadly serious, even if it does seem reminicent Monty Python's Ministry of Silly Walks sketch. The uniforms that the guards wear is based on the mountain fighters of the War of Independence. The Presidential Guard is highly selective, don't apply if you are less than 6 foot 3 inches. They are honouring the tomb of the unknown soldier, in the background, as well as protecting the President. The kilts, which they have to iron themselves are said to have 400 pleats in them. One for every year of the Turkish occupation of Greece.

 Strict attention to detail is observed, with every little tassel tweaked. The 11 o'clock change on Sundays is a particularly spectacular affair.

Next a delightful shady walk through the National Gardens takes us to the Temple of Zeus. This is the largest temple in Greece begun in the C6 BCE by Peisistratus if was abandoned for lack of funds. Various other people had a stab at finishing it but it was up to Hadrian to complete it in CE 131 taking 700 years to build. It was huge with 104 Corinthian columns of which 15 remain.

And some fell on stoney ground. This column succumbed to a gale in 1852.

Here you can see details of the capital of the Corinthian column with its arcanthus leaf decoration. After the temple it was time to get back to the apartment, rest a little and then out for a steak.
It has been a long day and we walked over 25,000 steps.  I reckon that's about 12 miles or 54 holes of golf. Come to that, this blog has been a bit of a marathon as well. I hope you have enjoyed reading it. My thanks, as ever, to Carol Rodgers for her support and encouraging comments.