Greece tour is not complete without a visit to the famous Acropolis that stood tall above the hill in the heart of Athens. This Acropolis picture was taken from the hotel I stayed, the Attalos Hotel. Room was basic but it offered a rooftop terrace overlooking the majestic Acropolis.
Another sight of Athens from the other end of the hotel rooftop terrace...
My first ancient site visit was the Roman Agora. We bought a multiple entrance ticket covering most of the important Athens ancient sites which include the Acropolis, Ancient Agora, Roman Agora and some other sites. Hmm..after visiting this site, I got a impression that I was going to see many more stones, columns and statues.
My next destination was the Temple of Zeus. After seeing the movie, "Clash Of The Titans", I thought I could see Zeus statue, the king of Olympian Gods. To my dismay, the statue was not there. Anyway, this place left impressive gigantic columns for us to admire.
Fallen column. Looks like the column was constructed by stacking all the cylindrical stones together.
On the way to the National Archeological Museum, I had a strolled at the botanical garden and swiftly passed the Parliament house.
It was so coincident that the the changing guard took place at the Parliament building. We were quite cautious walking around that area as there was a strike occured a few days at the Parliament house before our arrival.
The National Archeological Museum had a great collections of statues, paintings, potteries and surprisingly, some Egyptian collections.
Poseidon, National Archeological Museum. This is a famous bronze statue of Poseidon, God of the sea and younger brother of Zeus.
Aphrodite, Goddess of love and beauty. Roman called this goddess as Venus.
The visit to the museum was good. The only thing that kept me wondering was the Zeus collections. We could not find any of Zeus statues. Ironically, after we asked the guard, she showed me the location but it was just a palm size statue. I guess most of his statues were destroyed.
Monastiraki restaurant. This was our regular place for our dinner. Surprisingly, I could see many immigrants selling goods:- Gucci, Coach, pirated CDs ...you name it.
The next morning, we started our journey early to the majestic Acropolis site. We passed by several grafittis. That was an eyesore and what a pity to see all the grafittis vandalized the whole city. It was a big contrast to the beautiful Santorini island. How annoying....sigh
Putting aside this ugly side of Athens, we finally reached the majestic Acropolis.
The Parthenon is the main attraction in Acropolis. It was destroyed through several rulings by the Christian and Islamic. It became a church before and next, served as a mosque and was believed that during the war against the Turks, this building was badly damaged by an explosion.
The sculptures at the East pediment represented by the birth of Athena, the goddess of Wisdom while the West pediment represented by the contest between Athena and Poseidon to become the city's patron.
Odeon Of Herodus Atticus. This ancient theatre is still alive with occasional classical theatre show.
Panoramic view of Athens from Acropolis. The Temple Of Olympian Zeus can be seen from a afar.
The Erechtheum was used to accommodate religious rituals. The Caryatids have become the temple signature features. There are a total of 6 Caryatids which the original ones(only 5) are kept in the Acropolis museum. One of them were taken by Lord Elgin and kept in British Museum. All these Caryatids in the picture are replicas.
Athens gets its name through a competition between Athena and Poseidon. They competed by giving a gift to the city. Poseidon struck his trident to the ground producing a spring symbolizing naval power while Athena created Olive tree, symbolizing peace and harmony. The Athenians chose the latter and named the city after Athena. The replicas showing the competition between Athena and Poseidon and is supposed to represent the west pediment of the Parthenon.
Replicas for the East pediment of the Parthenon. It depicted the birth of Athena from Zeus head. I did not have the chance to take the entire replicas of west pediment as I was stopped from taking photos by the authority. It really confused me as I did get a permission to take photos by his colleague.
Overall, my Greece tour was quite pleasant and joyful. I got an opportunity to enjoy one of the best islands in Europe and learn the ancient sites of Greece. The people in Santorini seemed to be friendlier than those from the big city probably due to the competitive living.Personally, I think for anyone who wish to visit Greece, they shall cover both the island and the land attractions. Else, it can be quite boring if you just keep visiting the ancient sites alone.
Pictures
http://picasaweb.google.com/photo.dannylim/Athens#
