Hot as Hades Tour Port 2: Athens, Greece

When you get to a port like Athens you just wish there was more time.  This is definitely the downfall of a cruise.  You only have about 6-8 hours in a port city, which makes it absolutely impossible to see all there is to see or even, really, to get a feel for a city.  On a cruise you are forced to see the touristy sites and go, usually at a pretty rushed pace.

Welcome to Greece

Athens was just a short drive from our port city of Piraeus.  The excursion we took was to see the Acropolis and limited sight-seeing through Athens.  The limited sight-seeing really just boiled down to the tour bus driving past other important monuments, but due to time constraints we were not able to get off and snap any photos.  I am sure many people have some idea about Athens, but here are some interesting facts.  Athens is one of the oldest cities in the world, with its recorded history going back around 3.400 years.  WOW!!!!!!  It is believed that Athens has actually been inhabited for at least 7,000 years.  Incredible. Athens, of course, was the location for the first modern Summer Olympic Games and has also held the games in 1906 and 2004. I am not sure if people realize this, but I had no idea, even today the Olympic Torch is lit several months before the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games at the site of the ancient Olympics in Olympia, Greece and then after traveling a short time through Greece it makes its way to the host city.  I thought this was super interesting. Here is a picture of the Old Olympic Stadium in Athens.

This area was originally a natural hollow part of the ground between two hills and was transformed by Lykourgos into a stadium in 330-329 BC.  Between 140 and 144 AD Herodes Atticus restored the Stadium giving it the horseshoe construction with a track. This stadium is constructed with the same marble that constructed the Acropolis. It is believed to hold 50,000 - 60,000 spectators.  Again...amazing. I don't think it is used at all, except for tours, but I don't know that for sure.

Before we headed to the Olympic Stadium we actually rushed to the Acropolis to try and beat the crowds. Remember in my Port 1 post I mentioned that a 10 am dock time was rare...well this time we had to be up and ready for our excursion by 7:45 am.  I have not been able to find any reliable numbers on how many people visit the Acropolis each day or year, but Wikipedia states that "Greece attracts more than 17.5 million people each year" and I would assume that most of those people visit the Acropolis, but who knows, my point is...there were A LOT of people. :-)

The Acropolis of Athens is the most important ancient monument of Europe.  At the center of the Athens Acropolis, The Parthenon tower stands over the modern city of Athens as a reminder that Athens was once the greatest civilization ever.  The Acropolis and the white marble of the Parthenon's tower can be seen from almost every part of Athens...and it is quite impressive, I might add.

I know sometimes I give a brief history lesson, but I am not sure you can appreciate things like this if you do not understand a little background.  The Acropolis was first a military fortress because of its location.  From this vantage point you are able to see both towards the land and the sea.

It then became a religious center for worship of the goddess Athena.  It was also used as a residential area until the late 6th century BC.  During 450-330 BC three major important temples were erected: the Parthenon, the Erechteion and the Temple of Nike.  The Acropolis took the form it has today in 480 BC.

As we walked towards the Acropolis we saw what appeared to be some sort of performance venue that looked to still be in use today.  This venue is called the Odeon of Herodes Atticus.  Does that name sound familiar?  Herodes Atticus was also the man whom restored the Old Olympic Stadium.  He was a wealthy landowner, whom was a Greek with Roman citizenship. Though we might refer to this as a sort of Greek Theater, the Greeks use the term odeon, because it was used mainly for musical performances rather than theatrical ones.  Odeon comes from the same root as the English "ode", which is the Greek word for "song".  This large amphitheater built in Roman times seats 5,000 people.  The odeon was built in 161 AD by Herodes Atticus.

The Parthenon is the most important and most famous of the monuments at the Acropolis and even of all the Ancient Greek civilization.  This temple consisted of 8 columns on each of the narrow sides and 17 columns on each of the long sides.  Again...you cannot even begin to fathom construction like this until you are standing in front of it in awe of how something like this even came about so long ago in such a difficult location.

I don't know if you can tell, but the columns are actually formed by individual circular cuts...they almost look like bottlecaps. Here you can see it a little bit better.

The Erechteion is a Temple built on the part of the Acropolis that was considered the most sacred, for it was a sanctuary where the people worshiped the Gods, Athena, Poseidon and Erechtonius.  It is believed that in this very location a battle between Athena and Poseidon took place for the naming rights of the city...I think it is clear whom won that battle.  

There were three entrances to this temple.  The Porch of Caryatids (the six ladies), the north porch (behind the Erechtheion), and the east end (to the right of the caryatids). The Porch of the Caryatids is a balcony that has six beautiful maidens functioning as columns that support the roof.  All of the maidens nowadays are copies of the originals.  Four of the originals are housed in the Acropolis Museum and one was stolen in 1805 and the sixth is in France.  What amazes me about all of these monuments is the attention do detail.  All of the carvings and decorative borders are incredibly detailed.

The Temple of Athena Nike was built between 427-424 BC.  It is an almost square building consisting of 4 columns at both ends.  This temple used to house a statue of Athena holding a pomegranate, symbol of fertility, in her right hand and a helmet, symbol of war, in her left hand.  The term "Nike" in Greek means victory.  I somehow missed this temple going in, but caught it leaving, not aware at the time what it was.

I also didn't take a picture as we were entering the Acropolis through The Propylaea.  I did get one as we were leaving, but the entrance side is much more impressive with all the marble stairs leading up to the entrance.  We were with a guide and thousands of our closest friends on tours as well, so we were jammed in a tight group rushing to the Parthenon (to get the shaded spot...remember it was hot as Hades).  The entrance gate is called The Popylaea and is the monumental gateway of the Acropolis.The Propylaea was constructed in just 5 short years (437-432 BC).  Here is just a little of what I captured as we were leaving.

The Acropolis is incredibly old and with age (and war) comes deterioration and destruction.  Beginning in 1984 the renovation began on the Parthenon and some of the buildings surrounding it.  In many of my pictures you can see the modern day scaffolding and construction materials.  This renovation project first involves categorizing every single stone of the Parthenon.  Next, archaeologists hope to put the 70,000 piece puzzle back together again.  Whenever possible, original materials are being used.  New marble, cut from the same quarries, are being used to replace damaged and missing marble.  You can see is some of the pictures the "whiter" sections or patches.  With time these "patches" should age to become the same color as the old marble.

As you leave the Acropolis you leave through the Beule Gate.  This doorway was built by the Romans around 267 AD.  During Roman times this gate was the official entrance to the Acropolis, making the Propylaea entry even grander.

I also included a picture of an olive tree in this collage because Greece has more than 100 million of these trees. Olive trees are often called "the gift of Athena to Athens."

We were able to spend about 30 minutes in the little town of Plaka for souvenirs.  I will blog at the end about some of our finds along the way.  On our drive back to the boat I was able to just take in a bit of Athens.  I find that with each European city we visit I tend to notice little things quickly.  I found that Athens was quite clean and (in the areas we drove) lacked the graffiti that we see plastered on much of Madrid and other European cities.  There were also many Greek Orthodox churches.  Each church is a sight in itself. They were all ornate and beautiful with the quintessential dome adorning the tops of most if not all the churches. We were also able to get just a glimpse of the Temple of the Olympian Zeus.  According to Rick Steves, this is the largest temple in ancient Greece, which took 700 years to complete.  At completion, it was 360 feet by 145 feet, consisting of two rows of 20 columns on each of the long sides and three rows of eight columns along each end.  Though today, only 15 of the original 104 columns remain standing.

The beauty of having to get up early for an excursion allowed us to be back on the boat in time for a late lunch (though I was dying to find an authentic Greek gyro joint) and a little time for relaxation before we began cruising to our next destination: Kusadasi, Turkey, where we strolled the ancient Greek city of Ephesus and visited the House of the Virgin Mary.  And we thought the Acropolis of Athens was impressive...