Parthenon
A temple built to celebrate a war victory that went on to become a church, a mosque, and a gunpowder depot — blown apart in 1687 and still being reassembled.
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Construction began 447 BC as a thanksgiving for the Greek defeat of Persia, and the building doubled as Athens' city treasury. Its decorative sculptures rank among the high points of classical Greek art — though the Earl of Elgin removed a large portion between 1800 and 1803 and shipped them to England, where they remain today.
What to look for
- Blast damage in the columns and fabric from 1687, when a Venetian bomb landed on the Ottoman gunpowder stockpiled inside
- Gaps and missing sections along the sculptural program where Elgin's agents cut away carvings now held in London
- Active restoration scaffolding — large-scale preservation work has run continuously since 1975
Sits on the Athenian Acropolis; restoration scaffolding has been a fixture since 1975 and is part of every view of the building today.
Parthenon is one of 36 sights worth the detour in Athens, all bundled offline in Voyage GO — download the Athens pack and it sits on your map with no signal, filling your travel passport the moment you walk past.
More to see in Athens
- Acropolis of AthensA flat-topped rock 150 m above the city where Pericles spent the 5th century BC erecting the buildings that still define Athens.
- Platonic Academy (Akadimia Platonos)Aristotle studied here for twenty years before leaving to found his own school — and the word "academy" has followed ever since.
- Classical AthensDemocracy was invented here in 508 BC — and it took a bribe at Delphi to get it started.
- Olympic Stadium Athens "Spyros Louis"Santiago Calatrava's white steel roof arches over the same track where Athens opened the 2004 Olympics — and hosted three Champions League finals.
- ErechtheionThe one Greek temple that broke every rule of classical architecture — and scholars still can't agree on what it was actually called.
- Daphni MonasteryGold-ground mosaics survive inside an 11th-century monastery built on top of an Apollo sanctuary the Goths wrecked — and Lord Elgin took the rest.