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2024-05-01 01:01
in Greece2024, Monuments
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The Parthenon is of course what Athens is known for, so I put it first on the list. It's supposed to get very busy during teh summer, but I arrived just during the shoulder season when times were moving from winter to summer hours, and when getting in at 08:00 sharp as it opened (with a timed reservation), the place was pretty nice and quiet. By the time we left, around 10:00, it was starting to be overrun with tour busses.
took the less busy south entrance, got in a few mimutes
While expectations were probably higher than they should have been, overall the place had suffered too much damage over the years and looked a bit disappointing to me. The fact that it used to house a church for a while, and was also used a munition depot and that a lucky shot during a war, ignitied and exploded all the black powder, causing a huge explosion, did not help. I was disappointd that after 40 years of renovations, it still looked like mostly pile of rubble, but was told later that there is apparently some rule that says you can only add 30% of missing materials, beyond that you're supposed to leave things alone. This is not my field, but I'd have been happy to seen it rebuilt, even if other material, to get a better feel for it. Of course the fact that the british stole half of what was left of the 2 triangle roofs and are keeping it in the british museum, did not help.
what is left of the decorations, the rest were stolen by the british
michoko bird!
The side temple, Erechtheon, looked a bit better:
One big plus of that location is that you can see all of athens from it and see many other sights:
what left of the temple of Olympian Zeus
and the rebuilt Panathenic Stadium where the 2004 olympic games were held
So maybe it was a bit bittersweet, but still very nice to see this site that was on my bucket list for sure |
