Athens - Acropolis

Acropolis Description

(Local Name: Akrópoli) A great crag of limestone rising out of the plain of Attica offered a site well adapted for the Acropolis, the fortified citadel of Athens. At first it served both as the stronghold of the kings of Athens and as the site of the city's oldest shrines; later it was reserved for the service of the divinities of Athens alone.




This religious center of ancient Athens, which received its classical form in the time of Pericles, thus reflected the humane values of Greek culture and thoughts which have retained their power down to our own day. In spite of the destruction wrought by many centuries, most notably the devastating explosion in 1687, when a Venetian grenade blew up a Turkish powder

magazine which had been housed in the Parthenon and made the 2,000-year-old temple a ruin, the surviving remains still convey something of the splendor of the age of Pericles.