The Full Acropolis Experience

 

Day 7 – Athens (Piraeus), Greece  Sunday, November 9

Driving out of the port, you com upon this beautiful Greek Orthodox Church.


We drove past the ancient harbor of Zea, its dock dating to the 5th century BC although it is hard to tell where the old harbor ends and the new one starts. This is a bustling harbor.  there were three Viking cruise ships at the port and at least 15 ferries that travel to the surrounding islands.

The tour description said "Upon arrival at the Acropolis, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, climb 80 steps through the Propylaeum, the grand entrance that delivers you to the plateau of the rock"  This was a lie they did not tell you about the six sets fo 20 steps each followed by hills to climb to get to that 80 steps. 

Once you get to the top, you can look down into the conservatory, an ampatheter where music venues are held. and that can seat approximately 2000 people.


Then you look up and realize there is more stairs to climb.


On this Acroplis, the Parthenon reigns over the the temples of Nike, Erechtheum and other temples.




 After some time to explore around the Parthenon, we continued on to the new Acropolis Museum, where more than 4,000 objects from the ancient city are preserved. That meant we had to back down all those stairs.

The New Acropolis Museum was built atop an archeological site of  Roman and Byzantine ruins teh floors on the first floor of the museum are made of glass, so you can look down into the ruins.





Most of the artifacts, Statues, etc now reside in the British Museum, but to date Britain has rejected the Greek government"s requests to have them returned to Greece




Replica of the Pediment of the Front of the Parthenon Depicting the story of the competition betweeen Athena and Poseidon for who would be the protector or Athens in which Athena won the competition



Replica of the Pediment of the Front of the Parthenon Depicting the story of the Birth of Athena, Born from the Head of Zeus.








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