Acropolis & Parthenon - Athens Walking Tour 4K - with Captions!
Athens is the capital city of Greece and is also one of the oldest cities in the world. The history of Athens that can be found in documentation stretches back 3,400 years. There is evidence humans began living here as far back as sometime between the 11th and 7th millennium BC.
The city is renowned for its classical architecture, the prime examples of which are here at the Acropolis. Already in 1,400 BC, the site of the Acropolis was significant. The Mycenaeans, an advanced civilization that lived in the last phase of the Bronze Age, built a fortress here. Remains of the fortress can still be identified through the Cyclopean masonry, a type of stonework used by the Mycenaeans constructed from massive boulders. On the south slope leading up to the Acropolis we find the Theatre of Dionysus, originally constructed as part of the sanctuary of Dionysus Eleuthereus. The first building work began in mid to late 6th century BC and it continued to be developed into the 4th century BC.
The theater was able to seat 17,000 spectators and continued to be used into the Roman period. It was abandoned in the Byzantine era and remained as such until the 19th century when excavations began. Nearby the theater and also on the south slope is the Stoa of Eumenes, a colonnade built in the Hellenistic period (between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the beginning of the Roman Empire in 31 BC). The colonnade or gallery was mentioned by Roman architect Vitruvius as an example of a place for theatergoers to shelter during bad weather or as a store for theater props. This was built as a sanctuary to honor the gods Asclepius and Hygieia, possibly after a plague in 419-18 BC.
The complex comprises the Telemachos Monument, a marble column now housed in the Acropolis Museum, a temple, an altar and two galleries, a Doric Arcade and an Ionic Stoa. The gated entrance ahead is a Byzantine cistern for holding water. From around 900 BC, Athens became one of the most important cities in the region. Because of its proximity to the sea, it was a trade hub, giving it an advantage over inland cities like Thebes and Sparta.
This Roman theater was built in 161 AD by Roman senator Herodes Atticus. Originally, music concerts would have been performed here for a crowd of 5,000 spectators. In 267 AD, the theater was destroyed by the invading Heruli. The theater underwent a massive restoration project in 1950 and now acts as the main venue of the Athens Festival, which takes place annually from May to October. Both the seating and the stage were reconstructed using Pentelic marble from a mountain in nearby Attica.
In 508 BC, Cleisthenes, an Athenian lawyer, introduced the system of democracy to Athens. Athens was thriving at this time, with a powerful navy that assisted in resisting the attempts of Persia to rule the Ionian cities. The Beulé Gate was built in the late Roman period as a defensive structure.
It sits below the stairway that leads up to the monumental Greek gateway called the Propylaia. The grand entrance was commissioned by Athenian leader Pericles as part of reconstructions after the Persian Wars. Building began in 437 BC but stopped in 432, leaving the structure unfinished.
The gateway is built from white Pentelic marble and gray Eleusinian marble for the accents. The term Acropolis is actually a generic word meaning a city on a high outcrop. The Parthenon, the most iconic structure on the Acropolis, was also commissioned by Pericles. It was under Pericles in the 5th century that the most significant period of construction on the Acropolis took place. The Parthenon was a temple built in honor of the goddess Athena, patron of Athens.
It is considered the epitome of the Doric Order and its sculptures are praised as some of the finest examples of Greek art. This structure is another commission of Pericles, this time built using the Ionic Order. It is a temple and a telesterion (great hall and sanctuary) dedicated to both Athena and Poseidon. For the Ancient Greeks, the Acropolis would have been known as Cecropia, named after the mythical serpent-man Cecrops, who is known as the founder and first king of Athens. The period 480-404 BC is known as the Golden Age of Athenian Democracy. This lady was very serious about her job.
Living during this period were significant playwrights like Sophocles and Euripides, the philosopher Socrates and the physician Hippocrates. Pericles, a statesman and general, helped this rich culture and democracy to thrive. In 478 BC, the Delian League, an association of Greek city-states, was founded in order to continue rebuffing the Persians.
However, the league was soon taken advantage of by imperialistic Athens leading to the Peloponnesian War which saw Athens defeated by Sparta. Anafiotika is a small, historic and picturesque neighborhood of Athens. Its houses date from the reign of King Otto in Greece in the 19th century. The Ionic order, as used here on the Erechtheion, can be identified by the scrolls on the capitals of the columns.
This building has an unusual asymmetrical composition that was not common in Greek temples. Experts have suggested this may be because it was built on an irregular site or that it was intended to be part of a larger, symmetrical complex. It is considered an archetype of the Ionic order and was highly influential on architects of the 19th century Greek Revival. The Maiden Porch is one of the temple’s most iconic elements. It features six caryatids, sculptures of women that act as structural supports. To the Athenians of the time, the Parthenon was a fundamental symbol of victory over the Persians.
Now, the Parthenon is an equally powerful symbol of Ancient Greece, democracy, and the beginnings of Western Civilization. In Greek life at the time, the Parthenon also had a practical role as the treasury of the Delian League, which then became the Athenian Empire. In the last decade of 6 AD, Christians converted the Parthenon into a church dedicated to the Virgin Mary.
Under the Ottomans in the early 1460s, the Parthenon was transformed again, this time into a mosque. Sadly, on September 26th, 1687, Ottoman ammunition that was being stored inside the Parthenon was blown up during Venetian bombardment and caused severe damage to the temple. In the early 19th century, Thomas Bruce, the 7th Earl of Elgin, took some of the sculptures that survived the explosion back to Britain. The sculptures are now known as the Elgin Marbles and are on display in the British Museum.
In 338 BC, King Philip II of Macedon, a northern Greek kingdom, fought and defeated the alliance of city-states that included Athens. This signaled the end of Athenian independence. This colossal pedestal was built to commemorate the victory of Eumenes II of Pergamon in a chariot race during the Panathenaic Games of 178 BC.
It was originally topped with a bronze quadriga (a chariot drawn by four horses). This temple, dedicated to the goddesses Athena and Nike, was built around 420 BC making it the earliest example of a fully Ionic temple on the Acropolis. When Athens came under Rome’s rule, it was awarded the status of a free city thanks to its prestigious schools. Under Emperor Hadrian in the 2nd century AD, a library, an aqueduct, a gymnasium and several temples were constructed in the city.
The Roman emperor also funded the completion of the Temple of Olympian Zeus in the center of Athens. But Athens also suffered raids by the Herulians, Visigoths and Early Slavs and, by the end of Late Antiquity, it was a much reduced and heavily destroyed city. The Areopagus is a rocky outcrop lying northwest of the Acropolis. The Greek name is Areios Pagos, meaning "Hill of Ares". In classical times, the Athenian governing council convened here, resulting in the name Areopagus being used to refer to the council itself as well. Legend has it the war god Ares was tried by the other gods on this rocky outcrop after being accused of murdering Poseidon’s son.
At the beginning of the Medieval period, Christian churches began to be built in Athens and temples were converted into churches, as happened at the Parthenon. Athens began to expand and flourish again during the Crusades in the 9th and 10th centuries thanks to Italian trade. Following the Fourth Crusade, the Duchy of Athens was set up.
In 1458, Athens came under the rule of the Ottoman Empire, signaling the beginning of a long period of decline. Athens, and Greece, remained under Ottoman control for nearly four centuries. 1821 saw the beginning of the Greek War of Independence against Ottoman control. When the Greek Kingdom was finally formed in 1832, Athens was nominated the new capital in 1834. This was a decision based mainly on Athens’ historic prowess, as at the time it was a town of a mere 4,000 inhabitants.
This beautiful door is the only remnant of an Islamic Theological School built in 1721. The building later became a prison and was demolished in 1915. The Gate of Athena Archegetis leads into the Roman Agora and was built in 11 BC by donations from Julius Caesar and Augustus. The Roman Agora was a large open space used for markets and public assemblies.
The site has not been fully excavated but you can see marble colonnades and a fountain. The Tower of the Winds is the most significant structure on the site. It is an octagonal clocktower constructed in Pentelic marble. The elegant structure is thought to be the world’s first meteorological station and it houses sundials, a water clock and a wind vane. The date of its construction is not agreed upon but could be in around 50 BC or in the 2nd century BC. The Gate of Athena Archegetis is composed of an architrave on four Doric columns.
As the new capital city of Greece, Athens needed a facelift and the first King of Greece, Otto of Bavaria, ordered a new city plan appropriate for a capital city. The first modern city plan used the historic monuments to emphasize the importance of the new city. The plan was based on the form of a triangle with the Acropolis, the ancient cemetery of Kerameikos and the King’s palace at the three corners.
The palace of the king is now the seat of the Greek Parliament. You can purchase a single ticket for €30 which allows you to enter 7 different sites over a period of 5 days. If you only want to see the Acropolis, the cost is €20. These are the ruins of Hadrian’s Library, constructed by Roman Emperor Hadrian in 132 AD. The vast complex was built in the style of a Roman forum with a single entrance constructed in the Corinthian order. In the inner courtyard there were colonnades and a long central pool acting as a decorative feature.
On the eastern side of the complex, the library building housed rolls of papyrus. Halls leading off from the library would have been used as reading rooms and lecture halls. Sadly, the building was severely damaged by invading Herulians in 267 AD. There are also remains of churches built during the Byzantine period, such as a 12th-century cathedral known as Megali Panagia that was the first cathedral in Athens. In order to make Athens an appropriately monumental city for the new Kingdom of Greece, many important public buildings were constructed.
The new buildings used the Neoclassical style and were designed by Bavarian, French and Greek architects such as Hansen, Klenze, Boulanger and Kaftantzoglou. The Athenian Agora, like the later Roman Agora, was a marketplace and a location for public assemblies. It is filled with remains of important buildings like temples and porticos. The Stoa of Attalos is an example of one such portico. The original structure was commissioned by and named after King Attalos II of Pergamon, in power between 159 BC and 138 BC.
The current building, however, is a reconstruction built by the American School of Classical Studies at Athens between 1952 and 1956. This beautiful statue is of a goddess, probably Aphrodite, and dates from the early 4th century BC. As can be seen, the reconstructed building is a museum housing many artifacts and remains from the Ancient Agora. This is a bust of the Roman emperor Antoninus Pius. The stoa was built in the Hellenistic style on two storeys. On the lower floor, the exterior colonnade was built in the Doric Order while the inner colonnade uses the Ionic.
The ground floor would have housed some shops in the closed rooms running along the side. On the upper floor, the exterior colonnade is Ionic while the inner is Pergamene. The exhibits on display in the museum are mainly related to Athenian democracy. The artifacts include objects in bronze, glass and clay as well as lots of sculptures and a collection of coins. Much of the collection dates from the 7th to the 5th century BC but there are also artifacts like pottery from the Byzantine period and the Turkish conquest.
The stoa was regularly used until 267 AD when the wooden parts of the structure were burned by the Heruli. The Greek Archeological Society began to study and clear the ruins of the stoa in the late 19th century. The American School of Classical Studies took over in 1931 and completed the reconstruction.
The American School of Classical Studies was also responsible for excavating and identifying the other structures on the site. Later buildings were also constructed on the site, such as this church dating from the 10th century. In the interior, there are some fragments of wall paintings that date to the 17th century. There are four identifiable building phases in the construction as can be seen from the various repairs and restorations that took place. The structure is the first example of a church built in the Athenian type which uses a cross-shaped floor plan with apses on four sides.
Four columns support the dome in the center. The exterior is decorated with tiles displaying Kufic-style patterns that look like an Arabic script. The church is also referred to using the name "Solakis", which could have been the name of the family who funded the renovation of the church.
The building is particularly important because it is the only structure in the Agora other than the Temple of Hephaestus which remains intact since its construction. The literal meaning of the name “agora” is gathering place. Athenians would have come to this agora to meet and discuss political and social issues. The agora was a place to conduct business and politics, but also somewhere to congregate for leisure activities like watching performances or listening to philosophers speak. The Athenian Agora was also a deeply religious site as the Panathenaic Way runs through it.
The Panathenaic Way was a sacred route used for traveling to the Panathenaic Games held every four years in honor of the goddess Athena. The Temple of Hephaestus is a Greek temple that is in an extremely good state of repair. Its excellent condition is due to the fact that it continued to be used until the 19th century. From the 7th century to 1834, it was used as a Greek Orthodox church. The temple was built in honor of Hephaestus, the god of metalworking, craftsmanship, and fire. This is because the area was full of workshops producing pottery and metalwork.
The temple was built in the Doric Order and features decorative friezes showing scenes of battles. During excavations, archeologists found evidence of the plants that once would have filled the agora site. In 1954, oak and laurel trees began to be planted in order to reconstruct the natural surroundings as they would have been in antiquity. This is the Monument of the Eponymous Heroes. The podium would once have supported bronze statues of ten heroes from Athens.
On the right is the entrance to what was the Odeon of Agrippa, a two-story auditorium that would have housed around 1,000 spectators built in circa 15 BC. 1896 marked an important year for the city with the first modern Olympic Games being held in Athens. The modern games were inspired by the ancient Olympic Games held every four years in Olympia, in Greece. Prior to 1896, King Otto had held various Olympic Games, but the 1896 edition marks the first overseen by the International Olympic Committee.
We are walking down the Apostolou Pavlou walk, considered one of the most attractive streets in Athens. The pedestrianized street is lined with outdoor cafès and restaurants and souvenir stalls. It also affords good views of the ancient architecture of Athens.
The population of Athens grew significantly during the 1920s as Greek refugees arrived from Asia Minor following the Greco-Turkish war and the Greek genocide. In the decades following World War II, the population of Athens experienced an even greater boom. From here, you can look over to the Areopagus Hill we visited earlier and the Acropolis. Beginning in the 1970s, authorities in Athens started to realize the severe damage pollution was having on the ancient buildings. The caryatids on the Erechtheion were being damaged and the face of the horseman on the Parthenon's west side was nearly completely destroyed. By the 1980s, pollution had become the city’s most critical issue.
Smog and smoke coming from factories and exhaust from cars were the main culprits. In the 1990s, therefore, the city authorities introduced strict measures to improve air quality. Public transport was also improved at this time by expanding the metro system and building a new airport. Although things have improved, on summer days air pollution can still be a problem.
In June 2007, a brush fire devastated a large section of the national park in Mount Parnitha which is considered vital to maintaining good air quality in the city. In 2004, the Olympic Games returned to Athens. Infrastructure was in need of improvement in order to manage the vast number of people arriving to watch the games. During works on the Athens Metro, a huge archeological find was discovered and over 50,000 artifacts were excavated.
The finds can be seen in six metro stations. Also in an effort to improve the city for the 2004 Olympics, the first female mayor of Athens, Dora Bakoyannis, had vast areas of roads and sidewalks modernized and repaved. Athens was the first ever city to hold the title of European Capital of Culture of 1985. The Acropolis is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, one of 18 in Greece. Each year, around 18 million tourists visit Athens to see the city that has come to be known as the cradle of Western civilization and the birthplace of democracy. Thanks for watching this tour of the Acropolis.
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2021-10-26 02:50
