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Guard
Guarding the tomb of the unknown soldier underneath the Hellenic Parliament.
Changing of the Guard
Guards change once an hour.
Changing of the Guard Video
Video of the changing of the guard. This is a highly stylized and choreographed switching out of the guards.
The Unknown Soldier
Honor Guard at the Presidential Palace.
Note the difference in dress from the guards at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. This is one of three uniforms they will wear.
Zappeion.
A neoclassical building designed and built 1874 - 1888. One of the more prominent buildings hosting cultural and artistic events in modern day Greece.
Temple of Zeus
Construction began in the 6th century BC and was completed by the Roman Emperor Hadrian in the 2nd century AD. It was renowned as the largest temple in Greece. Currently undergoing restoration.
Temple of Zeus
Likely appearance of the temple during antiquity.
By Valentin Fiumefreddo - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0,
By Valentin Fiumefreddo - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0,
Acropolis
View of the Acropolis from the Temple of Zeus.
Hadrian's Gate
Built in honor of the Roman Emperor, the arch spanned an ancient road from the center of Athens to the complex of structures that included the Temple of Zeus.
Greek Independence Fighter
General Yannis Makriyiannis, best known for his victories in the Greek struggle for independence, and today for his Memoirs - a "Monument of Greek Literature". Note the similarity in dress to the honor guards at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
Acropolis
Theater of Dionysus in the foreground
Theater of Dionysus
Constructed in the mid to late sixth century BC, reaching full extent in the fourth century BC with a capacity of 17,000. Theater was enormously popular in ancient Greek society.
Menander
Menander was a Greek dramatist and the best known representative of the mildly satiric view of contemporary Athenian society known as Athenian New Comedy - 320 BC to 250 BC.
Odeon of Herodes Atticus
A Roman theater completed in 161 AD, destroyed and left in ruins by the Heruli (early Germanic people) in 267 AD then renovated in 1950. Currently the main venue of the Athens Festival
Odeon of Herodes Atticus
Athens
Looking out over the Odeon to modern day Athens - population approximately 3 million.
Parthenon
Dedicated to the goddess Athena, patroness of Athens. Construction started in 447 BC and completed in 438 BC.
For a time, it served as the treasury of the Delian League, which later on became the Athenian Empire. In the final decade of the 6th century AD, the Parthenon 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 26 September 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, reportedly with the permission of the Turks of the Ottoman Empire.
Currently undergoing restoration.
For a time, it served as the treasury of the Delian League, which later on became the Athenian Empire. In the final decade of the 6th century AD, the Parthenon 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 26 September 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, reportedly with the permission of the Turks of the Ottoman Empire.
Currently undergoing restoration.
Erechtheion - Temple of Athena Polias
Dedicated to the goddess Athena and housing the statue of Athena Polias. Noteworthy for the Porch of the Maidens. The building is the successor of several temples and buildings on the site. It has undergone much change of use, damage and spoliation making it one of the more problematic sites in classical archaeology.
Erechtheion
Erechtheion
East Pediment Parthenon
This is a copy of Dionysus (the original is in the British Museum) in the left hand corner of the east pediment. Original scene showed the miraculous birth of goddess Athena from the head of her father Zeus, in the presence of other gods who watch standing, sitting or half-reclining.
Parthenon
Hadrian's Library
A rendering of Hadrian's Library. it would have housed over 17,000 books, scrolls, documents and papyri. It was constructed in around 132 AD and in order for the new compound to be founded, 24 standard house blocks of a Roman city were expropriated and demolished.
“Athens remained the stop of my choice; I marveled that its beauty depended so little upon memories, whether my own or those of history; that city seemed new with each new day. I stayed this time with Arrian, by one of the great priestly families of Attica. Their house was only a few steps from the new library with which I had just endowed Athens, and which offered every aid to meditation, or to the repose which must precede it: comfortable chairs and adequate heating for winters which are often so sharp; stairways giving ready access to the galleries where books are kept; a luxury of Phrygian marble, alabaster and gold, quiet and subdued. I felt more and more the need to gather together and conserve our ancient books, and to entrust the making of new copies to conscientious scribes. I warned myself that it would take only a few wars, and the misery that follows them, or a single period of brutality or savagery under a few bad rulers to destroy forever the ideas passed down with the help of these frail objects in fiber and ink. Each man fortunate enough to benefit to some degree from this legacy of culture seemed to me responsible for protecting it and holding it in trust for the human race…"
Memoirs of Hadrian, Marguerite Yourcenar
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