First Day Tour of Athens

This morning was our first day in Athens. We began the day with a fairly difficult hike to the top of the Acropolis. Once we arrived at the top, we learned about the architectural structures that reside up there. We began with the Parthenon. It was completed in 438 BC. It took them nine years to build it. Our tour guide taught us about its optical illusion architecture. The constructors of the Parthenon wanted it to look perfect at all times. Most buildings, when built straight, from far away appear to bend in the middle and the roof appears to sink in. So the constructors tried to build it to where it looked perfect from every angle, and it worked. They arched the floor and leaned the outer columns in to make an optical illusion of perfection. Also, the Parthenon is currently under reconstruction due to an explosion that occurred in 1687. A war was going on and the Turks used it as a place to store gun powder. The gun powder exploded and destroyed a majority of the building. But, the modern Greeks are working very carefully to reconstruct it. Here are a few pictures of it.

Right beside the Parthenon was a smaller temple, but it is the oldest sanctuary in history. It was built to the gods Athena and Poseidon. On the back corner, there is a small room held up by six columns, all of different ladies. Five of these ladies now sit in the New Acropolis Museum, directly south of the Acropolis. The sixth one still remains in England, along with a majority of the Parthenon. Lord Elgin, the ambassador of Britain at the time, sent people to Athens and took the most well preserved pieces of the Acropolis and had them shipped back to Britain for safe keeping. The British were very foolish and they attempted to clean the marble. They ruined the painted pieces and the Greeks hate the very much because of this. Athens has gotten back a majority of these pieces but make a big deal about the comparison of the cleaned, ruined pieces to the well preserved ones. 

Next, we went to Mars Hill, the exact spot where Paul was on the run in Acts 17. Once we were on the top of Mars Hill, we read from Acts 17 and imagined being Paul, alone and being questioned and no one believing a word he says. It was a very chilling thought. We then prayed to have courage like Paul, the courage to stand up for our faith, even when we are the minority, because that is exactly what he did. Paul shared his faith with a group of very intelligent men and only one believed. That is still a win, right?  It was a very beautiful view of Athens.

 Mars Hill is the large rock in this picture. 

This is Paul's introduction to his speech, written in Greek.

Once we finished all of this, we went into downtown Athens and had lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe. That was the first time I have had ketchup since coming to Greece. 

Next, we walked to the New Acropolis Museum. It contains all artifacts from the Acropolis that have been discovered. The top floor is made to the exact dimensions of the inside of the Parthenon. And it sits sideways compared to the rest of the building because it sits facing the same way the Parthenon faces. 

Hercules wrestling a sea monster.

The painted version right beside the white one is what archaeologist believe it would have looked like back then.

 The first ever statue that was actually made to look like a human running, down to the muscles.

 Small replica of the Parthenon.

 Small replica of the Gods that would have set in the arches on the two entrances to the Parthenon.

 The most well preserved fragment of wall from the Parthenon.

 The floor was glass so you could see where they were excavating a city under the museum. 

What I call the "Hercules Pots."

I jotted down a few interesting facts throughout the day and I thought I would share them with you since I thought they were pretty cool.

• Gymnasium in Greek means place of the naked people.
• The medical symbol of a rod and snake came from the Greeks. The word rod in Greek is bacteria, which is the rod shapes you see under a microscope. The snake is a symbol of poison and antidote, or death.
• To the Greeks, pants were a very feminine thing. The women wore pants first, while the men wore skirts.
• Statues of women were always pudgy because the Greeks did not think that super skinny was attractive. That was adopted in the 1600s from Northern Europe. 

Tomorrow will be my second day of class. Hope its great! Goodnight guys!