60 Fun Facts About Acropolis

What does the Greek word 'acropolis' mean?

From akron, 'highest point', and polis, 'city' — many Greek cities had one, but Athens' is the acropolis.

In ancient times the Acropolis of Athens was also known as Cecropia, after which legendary figure?

Homer's 'strong-built house of Erechtheus' is thought to refer to the Mycenaean fortress on the rock.

Which Athenian statesman coordinated the fifth-century BC building programme that produced the Parthenon, Propylaea, the porch-of-maidens temple and the Temple of Athena Nike?

He lived from about 495 to 429 BC and presided over what is called the Golden Age of Athens.

How high above sea level does the Acropolis rock rise?

Its flattish top covers about 3 hectares, and its limestone was thrust over the softer Athens schist by tectonic forces.

The massive Bronze Age wall around the Acropolis, up to 10 m high, was built in which style?

It was 760 m long and served as the rock's main defence until the 5th century BC.

The archaic Hekatompedon temple of about 570 BC is nicknamed the 'Bluebeard temple' because of what?

Its name means 'hundred-footed', and it probably stood where the Parthenon now does.

After the Persians sacked the rock in 480 BC, what did the Athenians do with the column drums of the unfinished Older Parthenon?

They can still be seen today; damaged statues went into the 'Persian debris' pits, the richest deposit found on the rock.

Which sculptor supervised the Periclean building programme and made the great statues of Athena?

The architects Ictinus and Callicrates worked under him on the Parthenon.

Who designed the Propylaea, the monumental gateway begun in 437 BC?

Its north wing was decorated with paintings by Polygnotus, and it later became part of a Frankish ducal palace.

From which mountain was the marble for the Acropolis buildings quarried?

It lies northeast of the city, and 530 cubic metres of new Pentelic marble were used in the modern restoration.

In which years was the Parthenon built, with sculptural work continuing until 432 BC?

It was raised in thanks for victory over Persia and doubled as the treasury of the Delian League.

How many columns stand across each end of the Parthenon, instead of the usual six?

It is an octastyle Doric temple; the wider front allowed a larger naos without over-spacing the columns.

The Parthenon's stylobate is not flat: it bulges upward at the centre by roughly how much over its 70-metre length?

Its columns also swell slightly (entasis) — optical refinements measured precisely in the 19th century.

Athena Parthenos, the great statue inside the Parthenon, was made of gold and ivory over a core of what?

About 13 metres tall, it was 'chryselephantine'; Pericles said its 40 talents of gold were removable in an emergency.

According to Thucydides, the Athena Parthenos was said to contain how much removable pure gold, usable as a reserve in an emergency?

It could serve as a gold reserve to save the city — provided it was restored afterwards.

The bronze Athena Promachos stood about 9 m tall behind the Propylaea. Sailors could see the glint of what from Cape Sounion?

Her shield was decorated by Mys with the battle of Centaurs and Lapiths.

How many caryatids support the famous porch of maidens on the north side of the rock?

One was removed by Lord Elgin and is in the British Museum; the others are now in the Acropolis Museum.

According to Vitruvius, caryatids depict women of which town near Sparta, punished for siding with Persia?

The Greek karyatides literally means 'maidens of Karyai'.

The western part of the temple with the caryatid porch served the cult of which god, fused with the archaic king Erechtheus?

The eastern part honoured Athena Polias, and the whole complex skirted several older shrines on uneven ground.

The Temple of Athena Nike, the smallest on the rock, is built in which architectural order?

Designed by Kallikrates with four columns at each end, it was finished around 420 BC during the Peace of Nicias.

What happened to the Temple of Athena Nike in 1686?

Its stones were dug out of the Turkish wall and reassembled in the 1830s; the latest restoration finished in 2010.

A famous relief from the Nike temple parapet shows the wingless goddess doing what?

Her clothes slip from her shoulder as she reaches down — one of the most admired carvings of the period.

Every four years the Great Panathenaea procession climbed the rock to present Athena with what?

The Parthenon frieze is believed to depict the procession, which travelled along the Panathenaic Way.

The Odeon on the south slope was built in AD 161 by Herodes Atticus in memory of whom?

It seated 5,000 under a cedar roof and was wrecked by the Heruli in 267 before its 1950 restoration.

Which invaders destroyed the Odeon of Herodes Atticus in AD 267 and prompted the building of the Beulé Gate?

The threat turned the Acropolis back into a fortress.

To whom was the Parthenon dedicated when it became a Christian church?

Under the Latin Duchy it was the cathedral, and after the Ottoman conquest it became a mosque with a minaret.

Under Ottoman rule, what was the temple with the caryatid porch reportedly used as?

Recent research questions the story, since it does not appear in Turkish sources.

In 1687 the Parthenon was blown apart when a shell hit gunpowder stored inside. Whose artillery fired it?

It happened during the Morean War siege; the colonnades were only properly re-erected in the modern restoration.

The medieval Frankopyrgos on the Acropolis, demolished in 1875, was what?

After independence, Byzantine, Frankish and Ottoman additions were cleared to 'cleanse' the site; the mosque went in 1843.

Which German neoclassical architect oversaw the 19th-century restoration of the Acropolis?

Wolf Seidl describes his role in Bavarians in Greece.

Which two men tore down the Nazi war flag from the Acropolis in 1941, in one of the first acts of Greek resistance?

Papandreou returned to the rock in 1944 to celebrate liberation.

Between 1801 and 1812, agents of which British aristocrat removed sculptures from the Parthenon and other Acropolis buildings?

Thomas Bruce claimed a firman authorised it; Lord Byron called it vandalism.

Which museum has held the Elgin Marbles since 1816?

An 1816 Act of Parliament transferred them to the British Museum after a select committee found Elgin's acquisition legal.

Which poet likened Elgin's removal of the marbles to vandalism or looting?

Keats, by contrast, wrote a sonnet on seeing them.

How much did the removal and shipment of the marbles cost Elgin personally?

The government offered him only £30,000 in 1811; the marbles sat in Malta for years on the way to Britain.

When did the new Acropolis Museum open to the public?

It shows more than 4,250 objects over 14,000 square metres and stands over Roman and Byzantine ruins.

Which architect's design, built around light, movement and a tectonic element, won the competition for the new Acropolis Museum?

Earlier competition winners Manfredi Nicoletti and Lucio Passarelli never saw their design built.

How far is the new museum from the Parthenon?

It sits on the southern slope of the same rock.

The Acropolis Restoration Project, begun in 1975, joins stones with dowels made of which metal so the work can be reversed?

It has restored 2,675 tons of architectural members, reassembling 686 stones from original fragments.

What is the technical term for rebuilding a monument from its own original fragments, as used on the Acropolis?

New Pentelic marble is used only sparingly to fill gaps.

What 2021 addition to the site provoked controversy among archaeologists?

They were meant to improve accessibility.

Geologically, the Acropolis is a klippe: an isolated block of which older rock resting on the softer Athens schist?

The Jurassic limestone predates the Cretaceous schist by some 30 million years and was thrust over it by tectonic compression.

Which spring at the northwestern foot of the rock became the fortress's only water supply during the War of Independence sieges?

A new bulwark named after Odysseas Androutsos was built to protect it in 1822–25.

How many times was the Acropolis besieged during the Greek War of Independence?

Twice by the Greeks in 1821–22 and once by the Ottomans in 1826–27.

Two Attalid kings of Pergamon set up monuments on the Acropolis; which of them also built a stoa on the south slope?

Both monuments were later rededicated to Roman emperors, and a round Temple of Roma and Augustus was the last ancient building on the summit.

Which building on the Acropolis housed the statue of Athena Polias, the city's tutelary deity, in Classical times?

The Parthenon held the Athena Parthenos, but the ancient olive-wood cult image belonged to the Erechtheion.

Which two architects built the Parthenon between 447 and 432 BC?

They seem to have called the building the Hekatompedos, the 'hundred-footer'.

Besides being a temple, what practical role did the Parthenon serve for the Delian League?

Construction started in 447 BC when the League, later the Athenian Empire, was at the peak of its power.

After the Ottoman conquest of the mid-15th century, what did the Parthenon become?

It had already spent centuries as a Christian church of the Virgin Mary before that.

With eight columns at each end, the Parthenon is a unique mainland example of what design?

Its wider inner cella structure also sets it apart from typical Doric temples.

Which tyrant allegedly stripped the gold plates from the Athena Parthenos around 300-295 BC?

He supposedly needed the gold to pay his troops, a sacrilege if it was never returned.

According to Plutarch, which architect designed both the Propylaia and the Erechtheion?

He was appointed architect of the new gatehouse in 438 BC and it was built between 437 and 432.

How many halls did the architect originally plan for the Propylaia gatehouse?

Only the central hall, the north-east Pinakotheke and a truncated south-east hall were finished.

What was the Pinakotheke, the finished north-east hall of the Propylaia?

Its name literally means a place for painted panels.

The Temple of Athena Nike stands on a bastion at which corner of the Acropolis?

Built around 420 BC, it is the earliest fully Ionic temple on the rock, just right of the Propylaea.

What did the archaic seated cult image of Athena Nike hold in her right hand?

She held a helmet in her left; the sanctuary was demolished by the Persians in 480-479 BC.

Which German archaeologist recognised the foundations of the Old Temple of Athena Polias?

The foundations that bear his name lie beside the Erechtheion.

To what capacity did the Theatre of Dionysus grow in the fourth century BC under Lycurgus?

On the south slope, it stayed in use into the Roman period; Aeschylus wrote for its earliest phase.

The Areopagus council met on a hill northwest of the Acropolis named after which god?

Myth says Ares was tried there by the gods for killing Poseidon's son Halirrhothius; it later judged homicide cases.

Which apostle's sermon in Acts 17 is set at the Areopagus?

The speech led to the conversion of Dionysius the Areopagite.