Athens: The Acropolis

The acropolis in Athens is ground zero for the culture of the western hemisphere. The Parthenon affected me as deeply as it did when I saw it the first time as a twenty-one-year-old student. The proximity of Egypt, Greece and Italy explains a great deal about the spreading of art and culture in the ancient world. As we were sailing from Italy to Greece it occurred to me that western Greece and the “heel” of Italy are only about forty-five miles apart. On the acropolis we saw not only the Parthenon, but also the Propylaea, the Odeon and the Treasury. The magnificence of these buildings is overwhelming. What a tragedy that much of the damage to the Parthenon occurred because it was used as a target for Turkish artillery practice.Read more