Parthenon

A temple to Athena atop the Acropolis, the supreme example of classical Greek architecture.

The Athenian leader Pericles ordered the temple after the Greeks had defeated invading Persian armies, and it showed off the power and wealth of Athens. Its columns and sculptures are seen as the finest example of classical Greek architecture, the style that later inspired banks, museums and government buildings around the world. Today it is a partial ruin, but it remains a symbol of ancient Greece and of the idea of democracy that grew up in Athens.

How it was built

The architects Ictinus and Callicrates designed the temple, and the sculptor Phidias led the artwork. Skilled workers cut blocks of white marble from Mount Pentelikon near Athens and shaped them with iron chisels, picks and drills. The temple is surrounded by Doric columns, a plain and sturdy column style: eight across each end and seventeen along each side. The builders also used clever tricks for the eye. The floor curves gently upward in the middle, and the columns lean slightly inward and swell a little, so the whole building looks perfectly straight from below.

What was inside

The inner room once held a giant statue of Athena made by Phidias, about 12 metres tall. It had a wooden core covered with ivory for her skin and gold for her clothes and armour, and she held a small statue of Nike, the goddess of victory, in her hand. The statue disappeared long ago, so we know its look from smaller Roman copies. Carved scenes ran around the outside: battles with giants, centaurs and Amazons, and a long procession honouring Athena. The stone was originally painted in bright colours.

History after ancient times

Over the centuries the Parthenon became a Christian church and, after the Ottoman Turks took Athens in the 1400s, a mosque. In 1687, during a war with Venice, the Ottomans stored gunpowder inside. A Venetian cannon shot set it off, and the explosion blew out the middle of the building. In the early 1800s Lord Elgin, a British ambassador, had many of the remaining sculptures taken to Britain. They are in the British Museum in London, and Greece has long asked for them back. Since 1975 experts have been carefully repairing the temple.

On the globe

The model shows Athena's temple sitting on top of the Acropolis in Athens, with rows of columns around a long rectangular building. Look for the columns lining each side and the triangular roof ends.