On Friday, June 17th, we stopped in the port I was most excited about, Athens!!! When we looked at cruises, the two ports we really wanted to see was Athens and Istanbul. Since we couldn't get to Istanbul, I am glad we were able to make it to Athens!
We made it!!!!
Cousinly love!!! Waiting for our tour guide to head into Athens!
Having another wonderful conversation with Mom and Dad!!! Our tour guide met us and we were off! Athens is the largest port in Greece. There are 4 million people in Athens and Pireus.
Michael is always my off road kind of guy. 8th century BC is the first historically years because it was the intro of the Greek alphabet. There are 52 districts in Greece and everyone has a capital.
Philopopis was a prince 2nd AD from Sierra part of the Roman Empire. He gave lots of money to Greece so they made him an Athenian citizen. This is where he is buried.
This is a downward look of the Theatre of Dionysus Eleuthereus. You can see that the seats were rebuilt and they use it now for musical concerts, etc.
Heading up to the Acropolis. The kids are ready to go!!
Our first close up look heading towards the Acropolis. Acropolis means "upper city". It was said that they were trying to decide between Athena and Poseidon for the god of the Acropolis. They choose Athena because the olive tree of peace was more useful.
This is the main entrance into the Acropolis.
Dad, Al, and Julie listening to all the wonderful information that our tour guide was telling us.
It is sure a beautiful view up on the hill!!! I can see why they built it up here.
The rocks are where the Apostle Paul preached Christianity.
The Temple of Athena Nike (Featherless Victory) is situated southwest of the Entrance, on a rampart protecting the main entrance of the Acropolis. It was constructed in ca. 420 B.C. by the architect Kallikrates. It is built in the Ionic order, and it is amphiprostyle with a row of four columns in front of each of its narrow sides. The relief frieze on the upper section of the walls depicts the conference of gods on the east side, and scenes from battles on the other three. A marble parapet decorated with the relief representation of Nike (Victories), protected the edge of the Bastion on which the temple was erected. The white marble is the new reconstruction of the temples.
Up, up we go! We were very, very glad that we had a small tour and were able to get there faster than all the buses. There weren't near the amount of people there when we first arrived as when we left.
Gabby and Kaitlyn enjoying the view!
These three vertical lines are called triglyphs between slabs tell of legendary battles.
Our guide had such a wealth of knowledge about the history, it was fantastic!!!!
All the temples before 5th Century BC were destroyed by Persians. Everything was thrown down holes like these from those times because the Levities decided that is what they wanted.
These were part of the roof. It was painted blue with golden stars in the olden days.
This was used for plays, etc.
The building of the Temple of Olympian Zeus actually began in the 6th Century by Peisistratos but work was stopped either because of a lack of money or because Pisistratus's son, Hippias, was overthrown in 510 BC. The temple was not finished until the Emperor Hadrian completed in 131 AD, seven hundred years later. Originally there were 104 Corinthian columns of which only 15 remain standing. One of the columns actually blew down in a storm in 1852. Hadrian had erected a giant gold and ivory status of Zeus inside the temple with an equally large one of himself next to it. Nothing remains of these statues.
This is the Acropolis Museum, it is newly built and looks very nice!
The family in front of the Parthenon. It is the most important and characteristic monument of the ancient Greek civilization and still remains its international symbol. It was dedicated to Athena Parthenos (the Virgin), the patron goddess of Athens. It was built between 447 and 438 B.C. and its sculptural decoration was completed in 432 B.C. The construction of the monument was initiated by Perikles, the supervisor of the whole work was Pheidias, the famous Athenian sculptor, while Iktinos (or Ictinus) and Kallikrates (Callicrates) were the architects of the building. The temple is built in the Doric order and almost exclusively of Pentelic marble. There are over 200 people on the Parthenon above the columns.
The rest of sculptural decoration, also by Phidias, were completed by 432 BC. The sculptural decoration of the Parthenon is a unique combination of the Doric metopes and triglyphs on the entablature, and the Ionic frieze on the walls of the cella. The metopes depict the Gigantomachy on the east side, the Amazonomachy on the west, the Centauromachy on the south, and scenes from the Trojan War on the north.
It is peripteral, with eight columns on each of the narrow sides and seventeen columns on each of the long ones. The central part of the temple, called the cella, sheltered the famous chryselephantine cult statue of Athena, made by Pheidias. It was 10 meters high and made of ivory and gold with eyes of diamonds. It weighed 2513 pounds.
You can see a little bit of the height from this picture here. It is the only second highest hill in Athens. The other one that is higher, was too small for the Acropolis.
The Temple of Hephaestus is an imposing ancient Greek temple in the Athenian Agora and site of worship of the Greek deity of fire, blacksmiths and sculpture. Built in the fifth century BC, the Temple of Hephaestus was later incorporated into the Church of Agios Georgios, this accounting for its excellent state of preservation.
The family with the Parthenon behind us!! Still a dream come true to visit all these places with my family!!
Nothing was built in a straight line and none of the columns are the same distance between the columns. The corner columns are giver so they don't look smaller.
On the south-west is the famous porch with the Caryatids, of which one is exhibited in the British Museum; the remaining are on display in the Acropolis Museum. On the monument itself casts replace the originals.
If you look behind the front column on the left, there is a hole there. It is said you can see trident marks of Poseidon there.
This went from a temple, to a harem and then to the Turkish for a church.
There has been a tree planted here for hundreds of years.
The Erechtheion is located on the north of the hill of the Acropolis. It is an elaborate building in the Ionic style, constructed between 421 and 405 BC. It has a prostasis on the east side, a monumental propylon on the north, and the famous porch of the Caryatids on the south. The main temple was divided into two sections, dedicated to the worship of the two principal gods of Attica, Athena and Poseidon-Erechtheus. A relief frieze, bearing a representation possibly of the birth of Erechtheus, decorated the exterior of the building.
Mom and Dad had started to head down, so it was just the eight of us!
Al and Julie at the entrance of the Acropolis!
The cousins!!! We had to hurry and take the photo, because people were on the move behind us!
My sister and I!!!!!
This is a look back at where we were first sitting. I know you can't tell very well from this picture, but there are a TON more people there now then when we first went up there and it is a lot hotter now.
Located in central Athens and on the south-eastern side of the Acropolis, the remains of the Theatre of Dionysus Eleuthereus offer much more than a simple suggestion of the events that once took place here many centuries ago. Known to date back to the 5th century, this giant amphitheatre began its life as a more modest wooden structure, before being constructed in stone during the 6th century. It is estimated that the theatre would have been able to accommodate just under 20,000 cheering spectators, spread over more than 60 individual tiers, coming here to watch fighting events and more theatrical performances. Greek authorities have recently invested some $9 million to restore and preserve the Dionysos Theatre for future generations to appreciate.
Julie stopping to smell the roses!!!
The front of the Acropolis Museum.
It was built on top of the ruins of ancient city from 7th BC to 9th century AD. It was neat to walk on top of the old ruins and not hurt them.
This is the top view of the Acropolis when it was finished.
A look back at the Acropolis from the museum.
We weren't able to take pictures in the museum, but it was truly fascinating!! One interesting fact was that Lord Elgin from UK looted the Acropolis in 1801 for his fiancé. He said he was only going to take rubbings of the frieze. Then he started paying off the people and taking the whole frieze piece by piece and shipping it back to UK. It is a sore point of people from Greece because they won't return them, they still reside in UK.
Next we headed to the Olympic Stadium. Here Mom and Dad are in front of the horseshoe shaped stadium. The start of the Olympic games were 776 BC. They were abolished in 393 AD because it was said the games were Pagan.
In 1896 they first Olympic games were held here.
The statue of lord Byron is on Vasilis Olgas street. In 1888 a competition to create a statue honoring Byron was proclaimed by D. Skylitsis, President of the Society of Friends of Lord Byron. Renowned artists of the time took part, and the work of L. Sohos was selected and exhibited at Zappeion. In the monument, Greece is depicted as a seated half-naked woman larger than life and larger than Lord Byron. She demonstrates her gratitude to Byron by placing a branch of a palm tree over his head, a symbol of immortality. Byron, in turn, is depicted as a young beardless round-faced youth, wearing fine European clothes and boots. The semi-reclining male figure on the back side symbolizes the Greek nation under seize. The composition rests over a round scaled base, its highest point being three meter tall.
The Hellenic Parliament is the supreme democratic institution that represents the citizens through an elected body of Members of Parliament (MPs). In the current composition the Parliament consists of 300 MPs, elected at the last general elections of September 20th, 2015.
This is the tomb of the unknown soldier for Greece. They have pom poms on their shoes to hide a blade in them. They also had horse shoes on the bottom of their shoes to make it look like cavalry.
This is the Academy of Arts and Science. It was named Hansen after the two brothers who designed them.
This is their meat market - there is A LOT of meat there.
We next headed down to the Athens flea market. Monastiraki Square is one of the most attractive squares in Athens. For centuries this square was the city's commercial center. Monastiraki was the site of one of the largest monasteries in Athens. Most of this 'Great Monastery' was demolished during archaeological excavations in the nineteenth century.
Another view of the Acropolis from the flea market.
Measuring in at some 18 metres / 59 feet high by just over 13 metres / 43 feet wide, the famous Arch of Hadrian was constructed to function as the gate to the city, connecting Athens with the Roman quarters. The archway was built from marble during the early part of the 2nd century AD, in order to celebrate the arrival of renowned Roman Emperor Hadrian (76 to 138 AD). The neighbouring Temple of Olympian Zeus provides further interest, while the Akropoli metro station is close by.
Then we had to head away. The one thing about cruises is that you only get a taste of the city. I love to spend a few days in each city to be able to see everything, but when time is an issue, I will take a cruise any day.
This is what we found hanging in our room when we arrived back from dinner. A cute bat!! I love how they even add the eyes. To say the least, I really enjoyed my times in Athens! It was great to hear all the history, have some local food and be with my family!
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