Historic Parthenon, One World's Largest Cultural Monuments

INDEPHEDIA.com - The Parthenon is a Greek temple built for the goddess Athena, patron of Athens in the 5th century BC (BC). 

The Parthenon is considered a symbol of Ancient Greece and Athenian democracy, and one world's greatest cultural monuments.

The Parthenon was built on the top tallest evidence in the city of Athens and was dedicated to the Greek goddess Athena Parthenos ("Athena the Virgin"). 

This temple is generally considered to be the culmination of the development of the Doric order, the simplest three Classical Greek architectural orders.

Initiated by the statesman Athena Pericles, the Parthenon was built by architects Ictinus and Callicrates under the supervision of the sculptor Phidias. Work began in 447 BC, and the building itself was completed in 438.

In the same year a statue of Athena made of gold and ivory was specially made. Work on the exterior decoration building continued until 432 BC.

Although the rectangular white marble Parthenon has suffered damage over the centuries, including the loss of most of its sculptures, its basic structure remains intact.

The Parthenon remained essentially intact until the 5th century AD, when the giant statue of Phidias was removed and the temple was converted into a Christian church. In the 7th century, certain structural changes on the inside had also been made.

The Turks captured the Acropolis in 1458, and two years later they adopted the Parthenon as a mosque, with no material changes except to build a minaret in the southwest corner.

During the 1687 Venetian bombing of the Acropolis against the Turks, a building located at the temple exploded, destroying the center of the building.

In 1801–1803, most of the remaining statues were removed, with Turkish permission by the English aristocrat Thomas Bruce, Lord Elgin, and in 1816 taken to the British Museum in London.

Other statues from the Parthenon are now at the Louvre Museum in Paris, in Copenhagen, and elsewhere, but many are still in Athens.

As a historical building, the Parthenon is visited by many tourists from all over the world to see this temple building from the glory of Ancient Greece. (SJ.WS/YL/*)