Day 16. May 18, 2024 – Today we toured Athens pretty much by ourselves. Late in the day we went to the Acropolis ending the day with a farewell dinner with our tour group.
The Jacaranda Trees were stunning in Athens National Garden.
Zappeion Hall is in the National Garden. It is used for public and private meetings and ceremonies and is one of Athens most renowned modern landmarks.
The Panathenaic Stadium was originally built in 400 BC and has been rebuilt many times. It is the only stadium in the world built entirely of marble, and it will hold 45,000 people.
We browsed the local meat market on Saturday morning with the locals. It was the largest one we have seen anywhere. We found it was also a social scene with locals greeting each other and visiting.
The fish market, immediately adjacent to the meat market was equally large. Here they will filet clean and cut your fish to whatever you want.
Next was fruits and veggies! The small yellow fruit in front is Mespila and it is ripe from April to May. Greeks eat it by itself. It is soft, succulent and sweet with a bit of acidity.
The ancient Agora of Athens, near the Acropolis. This is where the Greeks gathered for business and social purposes. It has been dated to the 2nd century BC.
We could see the Acropolis from Lycabettus Hill.
Surprise! At the top of Lycabettus Hill is the Church of St. George, built over a temple of Zeus Extreme from ancient times. The church dates back to 1870.
After hiking to the top of Lycabettus Hill, we stopped for some refreshment. The skies were a bit cloudy as you can see in the background. We heard this was due to the winds carrying dust from the Sahara desert in North Africa
We went back to watch the Changing of the Guard ceremony in front of Parliament and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier again. This occurs every hour on the hour, 24/7, and involves two outgoing sentries supervised by the Corporal of the Change. The Guard position is considered highly prestigious.
Theatre of Dionysus at the Acropolis, it was constructed around the mid to late 6th Century BC and could hold 17,000 people. It is considered to be the world’s oldest theatre. Front row seats were elaborate thrones, with carved legs and armrests. The name of the spectator for which they were reserved as inscribed on each seat.ropylaea, in Greek meaning Gates, it is entrance to the Acropolis of Athens. Built between 437 and 432 BCE.
The most sacred building in the Acropolis is the Erechtheion, aka Temple of Athena Polias. It was built between 430 and 405 BC to house the statue of Athena Polias. It is unusual because it is not symmetrical and features Caryatids: large statues of women that serve as pillars supporting part of the roof.
Check out the close up of the top of the Parthenon. The metopes here are the rectangular elements (carvings depicting a battle) that fills the space between two triglyphs (the spacers) in the above photo. All of these would have been painted in bold colors.
The Parthenon is a former temple that was built and dedicated to the goddess Athena between 447 and 432 BC. No other Greek temple had so many decorative elements. It has 92 metopes between triglyphs that were decorated with relief sculptures, AND an Ionic frieze full of sculptures that encompass the entire building. All the of metopes and frieze were painted in bold colors of red, blue, yellow, etc.