The Parthenon, located on the Acropolis in Greece and with a few.
exceptions like the Great Pyramids of Egypt, is probably the most .
studied.
building on the face of the planet by historians, architects and.
archaeologists.
The Parthenon was erected as a temple to honour the goddess Athena .
who.
was the patron goddess of Greece, wisdom and war, was built between 447 .
and.
432 B.C and is made of marble. The Parthenon had a forty feet tall .
statue of.
Athena contained within its forty-six column boundary (seventeen along .
each.
side and eight across each end). The statue was highly decorated with .
carved.
wood, ivory and gold. The few that would have seen it (as the public .
were.
not usually allowed inside) would have been amazed by the scale and.
appearance of it.
Experiencing the Parthenon from outside would have been equally.
overwhelming when it was complete as it is 228.1 feet long by 101.3 .
feet.
wide, a huge scale of building for centurys B.C.
Each of the columns around the Parthenon trick the human eye into.
thinking they are straight but are actually slightly wider in the .
middle.
than at the top and bottom, this is referred to as entasis and is .
basically.
perspective trickery.
The space inside the Parthenon was divided into three main areas; .
the.
pronaos, the naos and the opisthodomos. The pronaos was the front .
entrance.
area or porch, the naos was the main hall-like room that housed the .
statue.
of Athena and was proportioned almost two to one (length and width). .
Finally.
the opisthodomos was the back room used for storing things like .
offerings to.
the goddess from the people.
One noticeable point about the columns around the pronaos is the fact .
that.
they are Ionic instead of Doric, like the rest of the temple.
The Parthenon was a symbol not only to people to let them see how.
incredible Athena was but a sign to the goddess herself of how much she .
was.
worshipped and appreciated on Earth. This must be the case as it would .
