Parthenon

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  The Parthenon was built in the fifth century B.C. It was surrounded by 58 columns, and its pediments were decorated with magnificent relief sculpture. This temple was dedicated to Athena, the goddess of wisdom. A statue of Athena was located in the main hall, facing east so as to catch the rays of the morning sun, and giving the temple an air of majesty.

  The Parthenon was constructed as a political key issue not only for Athens, but for all Greece. The Parthenon is one of the world’s most beautiful sights. Even its constructors could not have anticipated that their temple would come to symbolize no less than the emergence of human civilization. Iktinos and Kallikratis are known as the architects of the Parthenon. The temple is Doric, peripheral, with eight columns on each facade and 17 columns on the long sides. Its nave, amphiprostyle and with six columns, was divided into two unequal parts.

  Here are found all the so-called visual corrections and refinements of the Doric style, in a system so strictly adhering to set proportions that nothing could have resulted but a perfectly balanced and harmonious whole.

  The ambitious morphological intentions of the planners can be seen in a series of innovations to the building such as the continual frieze on the sanctuary, done in the Ionic manner, the interior colonnade in a "u" shape which housed the gold and ivory statue of the goddess, a work by Pheidias, the double colonnade on the narrow sides and so on. Nothing has survived of the religious statue.

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