Wednesday, January 03, 2007

Acropolis



I have visited Acropolis twice in last month(December) and writing down some of my experiences. First see what wikipedia is telling about Acropolis.

Some information from wikipedia is given below.
Acropolis (Gr. acron, edge, polis, city), literally the edge of a town or a high city. For purposes of defense early settlers naturally chose elevated ground, frequently a hill with precipitous sides, and these early citadels became in many parts of the world the nuclei of large cities which grew up on the surrounding lower ground.
The Acropolis of Athens is the best known acropolis (high city) in Greece. Although there are many other acropolises in Greece, the significance of the Acropolis of Athens is such that it is commonly known as The Acropolis without qualification. The Acropolis is a flat-topped rock which rises 150 m (512 ft) above sea level in the city of Athens, Greece. It was also known as Cecropia, after the legendary serpent-man, Kekrops or Cecrops, the first Athenian king.






Well, this is one of the World heritage sites and major touristic attraction of Greece. I liked it because of its structure and delicacy. The long pillars are made up of small pieces of identical cylindrical stones, placed vertically. Each of them are exactly same. Probably they have invented some techniques to achieve this surprising degree of accuracy. See the pics below from the Temple of Jeus where it is clearly shown how each of the pillars were made.

The view of the city from the top of Acropolis is awesome. We visited couple of Museums in Acropolis including the Temple of Agora and Tession, couple of ruined theatres and Parthenon obviously. This is one of my best heritage sites I have ever seen in my life.