Returning to our favorite parking area the next day, March 10, Don snuggled into his favorite spot and we walked over to the Acropolis Museum.
This museum is new, just opened 6 months ago, and WOW! This is the place to start your tour of the Acropolis. Don't even go up the hill until you have visited here.
We entered the museum and started on the ground floor, moving up to the third floor, but our recommendation is to go to the third floor and go to the movie first, then tour the third floor and move down, touring each floor, to the ground floor.
The movie was excellent. They show it continuously, once in Greek and once in English. It is an excellent history of the Acropolis, with good illustrations and photos. When describing the building and destruction of the Acropolis through the ages Don and I actually gasped at the animation of the Ottomans destroying the sculptures. Even in animated form it was shocking to see the beautiful statues of Poseidon and Athena crash to the ground.
After the movie we walked around the third floor. The displays here are in the form and size of the actual Acropolis. The theater is in the center of the open area of the Parthenon and when you exit the theater and pass through the shiny steel pillars you realize that the floor plan is a replica of the floor plan of the Parthenon. Walk around the exterior to see the sculptured reliefs from the pediments, friezes and metopes, each artifact set in it's proper place in the skeleton of the structure. Sketches and photos show how each section of the Parthenon looked when intact and there are models of the Parthenon to show how it looked at each stage of it's life through the millennia. It was used as a pagan temple, a mosque, a church, a meeting hall, a museum. it burned down a few times, was destroyed by warriors and by bombs, and always rebuilt, because it is clear that this is a sacred place to all beliefs.
I loved being able to see the beautifully composed scenes which adorned the Parthenon, recreating the stories of the Iliad and the Odyssey, the battle between Athena and Poseidon for the rule of Athens, and the Battle of the Giants. The sculpture is very fine and top quality, being a gift to the goddess. The work had to be perfect.
We moved through each floor, which show works from the Archaic period (800-600 BC), to the Classic period (500-400 BC), to the Hellenistic period and the Roman period. We saw the originals of the 6 maidens of the Erectheon, many statues of Kore, and the famous statue of Moschophoros, a man carrying a calf on his shoulders.
We highly recommend this museum as a first stop in your exploration of the Acropolis.
This museum is new, just opened 6 months ago, and WOW! This is the place to start your tour of the Acropolis. Don't even go up the hill until you have visited here.We entered the museum and started on the ground floor, moving up to the third floor, but our recommendation is to go to the third floor and go to the movie first, then tour the third floor and move down, touring each floor, to the ground floor.
The movie was excellent. They show it continuously, once in Greek and once in English. It is an excellent history of the Acropolis, with good illustrations and photos. When describing the building and destruction of the Acropolis through the ages Don and I actually gasped at the animation of the Ottomans destroying the sculptures. Even in animated form it was shocking to see the beautiful statues of Poseidon and Athena crash to the ground.
After the movie we walked around the third floor. The displays here are in the form and size of the actual Acropolis. The theater is in the center of the open area of the Parthenon and when you exit the theater and pass through the shiny steel pillars you realize that the floor plan is a replica of the floor plan of the Parthenon. Walk around the exterior to see the sculptured reliefs from the pediments, friezes and metopes, each artifact set in it's proper place in the skeleton of the structure. Sketches and photos show how each section of the Parthenon looked when intact and there are models of the Parthenon to show how it looked at each stage of it's life through the millennia. It was used as a pagan temple, a mosque, a church, a meeting hall, a museum. it burned down a few times, was destroyed by warriors and by bombs, and always rebuilt, because it is clear that this is a sacred place to all beliefs.
I loved being able to see the beautifully composed scenes which adorned the Parthenon, recreating the stories of the Iliad and the Odyssey, the battle between Athena and Poseidon for the rule of Athens, and the Battle of the Giants. The sculpture is very fine and top quality, being a gift to the goddess. The work had to be perfect.
We moved through each floor, which show works from the Archaic period (800-600 BC), to the Classic period (500-400 BC), to the Hellenistic period and the Roman period. We saw the originals of the 6 maidens of the Erectheon, many statues of Kore, and the famous statue of Moschophoros, a man carrying a calf on his shoulders.
We highly recommend this museum as a first stop in your exploration of the Acropolis.
No photos allowed inside, darn!
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