VIP

Wednesday

Akropolis, Day 2

We were supposed to go to the museum again but didn't have enough time so we went straight to the Akropolis and stayed there all day. It was significantly hotter today than yesterday. We spent the first half of the morning talking about the Nike temple located just outside the Propelya and the Erechtheum, located North of the Parthenon. The Erechtheum was very beautiful--I enjoyed it's various porches, including The Porch of Caryatids and a large flowered doorway.

The Porch of Caryatids

After hearing about these buildings from our teacher, we met the former leader of the Propylaia excavation work, Tassos Tanoulas, who took us behind the scenes and talked about various features of the architecture of the Propelya. It was incredible. Definitely the most interesting and exciting part of the trip so far. We were in completely roped off sections of the Akropolis getting a lesson from the guy who worked on the restoration. Plus I am interested in architecture I especially enjoyed this. One of my favorite aspects was how you could see the different layers of civilization throughout the rooms and buildings. For example, on the south side, there was a big open room, but you could see where later the Byzantines came in and separated the room, making it two stories, and later other features were added and tweaked. You can see this both through structural changes and indentations, but also by remnants of different materials: marble, limestone, brick, etc.

Tassos Tanoulas

One of the reasons we can tell this is unfinished is because the blocks still have pegs sticking out from them that were used to hoist them up during the building process. Upon completion, these squares jutting out from the blocks would've been shaved down and removed.

Unfinished wall of The Propelya

Behind the Scenes: Leaning Wall

In the interest of perspective, this is a photo of The Akropolis from afar. See that tiny temple in the top right of the frame? That's The Nike Temple.

Notice where the people are.

You can't get to the Nike Temple, you can only look at it as you walk up to The Akropolis and through The Propelya.

The Akropolis

Now just read the caption of the next photo and realized how awesome I am.

Steps of the Nike Temple

Wednesday afternoon and evening I spent finally writing my first paper for class :(...a descriptive paper on the West Facade of The Parthenon--I can tell you all about sylobates, doric columns, friezes and pediments!

Lesson of the Day

Behind-the-scenes tours of The Akropolis don't just happen every day.

Photo of the Day

Me, Fushia, The Nike Temple and Athens!

The Count

Glasses of wine drinken: 89

Number of times visited the Akropolis: 3
Papers written: 1

Photos taken: 2775