How long ago was the parthenon built

This alliance would evolve into a de facto empire under Athenian rule, and some to cities across the Aegean began paying Athens huge sums of what amounted to protection money. Basking in glory, the Athenians planned their new temple complex on a lavish, unprecedented scale—with the Parthenon as the centerpiece. But unforeseen problems arose as soon as workers started disassembling the temples. For example, the ancient Greek builders had secured the marble blocks together with iron clamps fitted in carefully carved grooves.

They then poured molten lead over the joints to cushion them from seismic shocks and protect the clamps from corrosion. But when a Greek architect, Nikolas Balanos, launched an enthusiastic campaign of restorations in , he installed crude iron clamps, indiscriminately fastening one block to another and neglecting to add the lead coating.

Rain soon began to play havoc with the new clamps, swelling the iron and cracking the marble. Less than a century later, it wasclear that parts of the Parthenon were in imminent danger of collapse.

In a set of vivid drawings, he depicted how the ancient builders extracted some , tons of marble from a quarry 11 miles northeast of central Athens, roughly shaped the blocks, then transported them on wagons and finally hauled them up the steep slopes of the Acropolis. To speed up the job, engineers built a flute-carving machine. The device, however, is not precise enough for the final detailing, which must be done by hand.

This smoothing of the flutes calls for an expert eye and a sensitive touch. To get the elliptical profile of the flute just right, a mason looks at the shadow cast inside the groove, thenchips and rubs the stone until the outline of the shadow is a perfectly even and regular curve.

The ancients spent a lot of time on another finishing touch. With hundreds of thousands of chisel blows, they executed this pattern in precisely ordered rows covering the base, floors, columns and most other surfaces. The dates come from the inscribed financial accounts. One key factor may have been naval technology. Since the Athenians were the greatest naval power in the Aegean, they likely had unrivaled mastery of ropes, pulleys and wooden cranes.

Such equipment would have facilitated the hauling and lifting of the marble blocks. Another, counterintuitive possibility is that ancient hand tools were superior to their modern counterparts. After analyzing marks left on the marble surfaces, Korres is convinced that centuries of metallurgical experimentation enabled the ancient Athenians to create chisels and axes that were sharper and more durable than those available today.

The idea is not unprecedented. To build it, forty talents of gold were used about 1, kilograms of gold and it cost the city seven hundred talents, the equivalent price of a fleet of ships. The Parthenon was built between the middle of the fifth century and BC by architects Callicrates and Ictinus , under the supervision of Phidias , who was also entrusted with the sculptural decoration. The gables, as well as the statue of Athena , were the work of Phidias and described several important scenes.

For example, one of them depicts the quarrel that Athena had with Poseidon for possession of Athens and Attica. Built entirely of Pentelic marble , the Parthenon rests on a base of three steps. It had eight Doric columns in the front area and 17 columns on the long sides , each Overall, the Parthenon measured Although we don't know everything that each did, it seems that Ictinuswas the chief architect, Callicratus acted as the project contractor and technical coordinator while Phideas was responsible for overseeing and integrating all artistic elements.

He also personally created the enormous gold and ivory sculpture of the city goddess and produced some of the various sculptural groupings while supervising the production efforts of a small army of artists and craftsmen. Phideas was recognized at the time as being the greatest sculptor of his era but is acknowledged now as the greatest Greek sculptor of all time. The collaboration of the threesome was an enduring success. There is no denying that the Parthenon construction project was expensive.

The cost, according to public accounts engraved in stone, was silver talents. Attempts to translate that into a modern equivalent aren't entirely satisfactory. The main building material was Pentelic marble quarried from the flanks of Mt.

The old Parthenon, the one destroyed by the Persians while it was partway through construction was the first temple to use this kind of marble. The huge pieces of stone had to be hauled to the building site by oxcart. This structure was, by no means, the largest but what distinguishes the Parthenon from most other temples is the quality and extent of the sculptures. Many of the sculptures were made of the more expensive Parian marble, from the island of Paros, which most sculptors proclaimed the best kind of marble for their work.

As a collection that shows Greek art at its zenith the Parthenon marbles sculptures are simply without peer. The building itself is a work of art incorporating a number of aesthetic refinements calculated to make it appear as visually perfect as possible. This thickening in the middle made it look as though the columns were straining a bit under the weight of the roof, thus making the temple less static, more dynamic.

Although the lines and distances in the Parthenon appear to be straight and equal, the geometry has been altered to achieve that illusion. The Parthenon is a Doric temple, which artfully incorporated selected Ionic features to produce a building that many, including some of the world's top architects, have called perfect. The Doric style uses thicker columns and has a more massive appearance sometimes called masculine than the Ionic feminine style. This may have been a politically inspired choice by Pericles, symbolically uniting Greeks of Dorian and Ionian backgrounds in one transcendent building.

The Parthenon is classified as a peripteral temple, that is, the perimeter of the structure is defined by columns, in this case by eight on the narrow ends and seventeen on the long sides, for a total of 46 columns. Sitting inside the exterior columns is a raised stone platform. This supports the floor-to-ceiling walls of a shoebox-like room called the Cella or Naos. In traditional temples this is a single room but in the case of the Parthenon, the Cella has been divided into two rooms.

In the larger one, a huge standing statue of Athena was located, resting on a support slab. In front of the statute…a reflecting pool. In the smaller room, with the four interior columns, was kept the state treasury, including cash gifts to the deity.

The collection of interior columns was necessary to support the roof that, like the rest of the building, was made of marble. The reflecting pool was filled with water to add humidity to the air and prevent splitting of the ivory elements of the huge chryselephantine composite gold and ivory statue. It is worth noting that the statue cost more than the building built to house it and the sculptor Phideas made it so that it's gold panels could be removed, weighed and sold should the need arise.

That proved to be a wise decision because when he was later accused of pilfering some of the gold, he was able to quickly establish his innocence. None deny that the Parthenon building is a work of art in its own right but it was also embellished with a dazzling array of quality sculptures. The frieze tells the story of the Great Panatheniac procession- a major parade, festival and games that took place in Athens every four years.

Each year a smaller event called the Lesser Panathenaea also celebrated the birthday of the goddess. On each occasion, a new peplos robe , woven by selected maidens would be presented to the goddess, who was also the patroness of weaving. The frieze tells the story of the marshalling of the parade, depicted on the western end, the parade participants musicians, horsemen, priests, maidens with offerings, sacrificial animals, etc.

They appointed an archaeological committee called the Acropolis Restoration Project. With Greek architect Manolis Korres at its helm, the committee painstakingly charted every relic in the ruins and used computer technology to identify their original location.

The restoration team plans to supplement original Parthenon artifacts with modern materials that are weather-resistant and corrosion-resistant and that help support the integrity of the structure. Where needed, new marble from the quarry where the original marble was obtained will be used. Still, the Parthenon will not be restored to its original glory. Instead, it will stay a partial ruin and will feature design elements and artifacts that reflect its rich, diverse history. Renovations are ongoing at the Parthenon and the entire Acropolis; however, tourists can still visit the historical site.

Areas undergoing a makeover may be off-limits. Some important artifacts and remaining Parthenon sculptures were moved to the nearby Acropolis Museum. Secrets of the Parthenon. The Glorious Parthenon. The Parthenon. Oxford Bibliographies. Reed College. The Parthenon: Religion, Art and Politics. The State University of New York.

But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! Subscribe for fascinating stories connecting the past to the present. The Acropolis of Athens is one of the most famous ancient archaeological sites in the world. Located on a limestone hill high above Athens, Greece, the Acropolis has been inhabited since prehistoric times. Over the centuries, the Acropolis was many things: a home to kings, a Few monuments in the world are more recognizable than the Parthenon.

Sitting atop a limestone hill rising some feet above the Ilissos Valley in Athens, this soaring marble temple built in tribute to the goddess Athena brings the glory of ancient Greece into the modern world.

The term Ancient, or Archaic, Greece refers to the years B. Archaic Greece saw advances in art, poetry and technology, but is known as the age in which the polis, or city-state, was